Destroying The Balance
by SpaceCowboy2013
Summary: The Race is changed forever when a drifting ship arrives near Home when a Conquest Fleet is about to embark. What will be the reaction to a Supersoldier from an advanced space faring and big ugly species be? DISCONTINUED No time with other stories.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey people, as many of you well know I am the author of Sins of A Colonial Empire, I did promise a sequel to my story but in planning it I have hit a brick wall of sorts. **

**I will make this Halo timeline, like in my other stories different than the cannon.**

**So since this is Halo AU I Dont want any reviews asking or stating that the timeline is different. I Know!**

**The reason I have made the UNSC a little more advanced is due to the fact that several key technologies that are not around or available to the UNSC 500 years in the Future are in the process of being developed right now, power armor and optical camo as well as weaponized lasers are examples.**

**Enjoy!**

**Yeah this part is long but at it is an alternate timeline I have to tell you nearly everything.**

**I am including a description here so I dont have to describe them in the story and take away from the story.**

**Timeline**

**2050- **As space travel becomes as common as air travel and the moon becomes covered in settlements ,The four superpowers of the Earth, the United States, EU, People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation, along with the smaller space faring Nations of United Korea, Iran, Japan, India, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Kenya and Israel agree to form a single scientific body to explore and colonize the Solar system. All of the Nations space agencies are combined into one agency headed under the United Nations and is called the UNCA, United Nations Colonial Administration.

**2051- **With Earth's population reaching 12 billion and rising, the UNCA begins to terraform Mars, Saturn's Moons, and the Jovian moons, including Europa. The first orbital elevator is built and finished in five years by the UNCA in Hawaii allowing massive amounts of raw materials to be moved into space. Another four elevators begin construction, one in Cuba, one in Peru, Malaysia, and Mombassa, Kenya.

**2069- **Mars is successfully terraformed into a lush green world with several large oceans and dozens of seas and lakes. The great colonization begins, with Millions of people colonizing the Martian surface and the first cities beginning to appear. Extensive mining of the Asteroid belt begins.

**2085- **With Earth's population still rising and the increased production of food and resources struggling to catch up, the four Superpowers form into a single governing body, the UEG, Unified Earth Government. Artificial gravity is perfected and the technology soon revolutionizes space travel.

**2095-** Venus is terraformed allowing millions of colonists to settle. The Population of Mars reaches 1 Billion and the total Human population throughout the Sol system reaches 20 billion. The UEG and UNCA realize that the Human race must expand outside the Home system, research into Faster Than Light travel begins.

**2115- **Conflict erupts on Mars and the Jovian moons when a radical socialist movement, the Friedions, claim sovereignty over Mars and the Colonies on Europa. This leads to the first Inter-solar War and the Rainforest Wars.

**2116**- The UEG and UNCA create the UNSC, the United Nations Space Command, the military arm of the UEG, to combat the separatists Friedions. The UNSC creates a massive armada of the first Space Navy to combat the Friedions Space forces. The Earth's orbit becomes militarized as defenses are built as well as does the moon and Venus. Terrorist attacks supported by the Friedions all over the globe lead the rest of the nations of the world to join the UEG, uniting all of the Nations of the Earth.

**2117- **The first true Naval battle between fleets in space takes place above Mars as the UNSC engages the Friedions Space Fleet. Naval doctrine for the next several hundred years is established as the UNSC defeats the Friedions in several battles that last for a month with thousands of casualties on each side as the UNSC regains control over the orbit of Mars and its orbital facilities and space ports, as well as the planet's orbital elevators. However the Friedions have several ground to space laser batteries that are heavily defended that keeps the UNSC from landing large amounts of troops. A UNSC Marine Lieutenant named Andrew White suggests that teams of elite Marines be dropped from orbital warships behind enemy lines via Human Entry Vehicles, or HEV pods for Short.

The ODSTs are born.

**2118- **After a lull in the War the ODSTs are successfully deployed and the Friedions' lines crumble. Mars is soon liberated and the UNSC fleet, reinforced two fold, soon liberates the Jovian moons and the moons of Saturn, defeating the Friedions.

**2132- **Two brilliant Scientists named Shaw and Fujikawa create the Slipspace translight drive. The UEG soon tests the drive on a UNSC Missile Destroyer, the _Columbia._

The _Columbia_ makes a short jump across the Solar system, proving the drive works and that FTL has been achieved, but also that inter-system jumps are dangerous as the _Columbia _is nearly trapped in the Ort Cloud.

**2133- **The first ShawFujikawa drive equipped probes reach one of the nearest star systems to Earth with a known terrestrial planet, Epsilon Eridani. The probes upon return bring back images that shock Humanity, an Earth like planet.

**2134- **The first interstellar colonization ships leave Sol, lead by a titanic colonization ship that is escorted by dozens of slipspace capable UNSC warships, the _Santa Maria_, and head for Epsilon Eridani with several hundred thousand colonists in tow. The trip takes three days but the fleet arrives and soon colonizes the planet, which is named

Reach.

**2140- **Colonization of the Alpha Centauri system takes place where the binary systems several rocky moons of a gas giant are terraformed allowing Colonists to settle , the system is named the Atlas moons with the largest of which is a planet called Pandora.

**2150- **All of the systems with planetary bodies within forty light-years of Earth are colonized, creating the Inner colonies. Many systems like the Epsilon Erindani system have several colonies. The UNSC begins to have more control over the colonization efforts as more and more alien fossils are discovered on several planets, allowing many to agree that a large military is needed just in case the likely first contact goes wrong. Humanity soon controls over 100 planets and Reach becomes a military hub second only to Earth as the population of the planet exceeds a Billion. The total Human population reaches 40 Billion.

**2200- **Reach becomes the official headquarters of the UNSC, (though Earth still can act as headquarters). The first MAC gun is created. Energy Weapons such as lasers become common and traditional firearms begin to use either Metal Storm tech or Gauss tech to revolutionize weaponry.

**2400- **The UNSC and UEG expand to over 900 worlds. The total population exceeds 120 billion. ONI claims to have discovered the remains of an advanced alien spacecraft, which little do they know is in fact a Covenant explorer ship. Expansion halts as the UNSC and UEG realize that protecting the outer colonies is difficult. Defenses on all of the worlds are expanded and increased.

**2450- **The Insurrection begins, leading to a gigantic build up in the UNSC as it finds itself surrounded by worlds in revolt.

**2452-** Project Orion is created. ORION's goal is to create genetically and cybernetic enhanced supersoldiers to combat the growing threat of the rebels. 10 test subjects are chosen and 8 survive the augmentation. These soldiers come to be known as SPARTANS.

**2492-** With the Insurrection still taking place on the outer colonies the Orion project is advanced, 100 children are "chosen" to receive extreme genetic augmentations. The legendary Spartan IIs are born.

**2525- **On the outer colony world of Harvest first contact is made with an advanced space faring civilization known as the Covenant. They prove hostile , and war begins as a UNSC battlegroup is engaged by a Covenant Super-Dreadnaught, leaving seven UNSC warships vaporized and the Covenant ship destroyed. The Human Covenant War begins as Covenant ships begin to invade and glass parts of the world.

**2526-** A large Armada of over 120 UNSC ships and Thousands of Marines led by famed Admiral Preston Cole retake Harvest. The fleet engages a Covenant fleet of 65 ships and wins but at the price of 52 ships. The Marines engage for the first time Elites, Grunts, Brutes and Jackels in ground combat as the Marines, led by several Spartans, retake the planet. It is found that the Covenant's superior technology allow their ships to have a 1 to 2 ratio advantage over UNSC ships thanks to mainly energy shields. Three more battles will later take place as both sides wrestle for control of the planet, the UNSC eventually abandoning the colony in 2528 to the Covenant, whom glass the entire surface.

**2528 -** After the loss of Harvest four more star systems and 20 more colonies fall to the Covenant. The UNSC initiates the infamous Cole Protocol as humanity massively fortifies its worlds and throws all of its resources into the war effort.

**2530- **At the battle of Sargasso a young Admiral named Gregory White, a direct descendant of the creator of the ODSTs Andrew White , through use of what comes to be known as space based guerilla tactics, defeats a larger Covenant force of 23 ships with a fleet of 12 ships by using a series of intricate traps such as nuclear mines and using asteroids as cover to lure in parts of the Covenant fleet and pick them apart one by one with minimal losses. The victory boosts sagging moral as Admiral White becomes a hero for humanity alongside of Admiral Cole, who two months later goes on an offensive with his fleet and retakes three star systems besieged by the Covenant. During the battles ONI manages to , thanks to a raid by Spartan II supersoldiers, capture a lightly damaged Covenant frigate and transport it to a remote outpost to be researched .

2534- The Covenant begin a full fledged invasion of the outer colonies, the UNSC, outgunned looses nearly 60 star systems and 100 worlds are turned to glass.

2537- Seeing that the Covenant will likely reach the Inner Colonies within ten years and the fact that along the remaining Outer colonies the UNSC is stretched thin, Lord Hood and the UEG and UNSC HIGHCOM issue what comes to be known as the White Doctrine. The Battle plan, drawn up by Admiral White with help from Admiral Cole, Admiral Whitcomb and Lord Hood himself, calls for the evacuation of the rest of the outer colonies and for the populations of the planets to be moved to the well defended Inner Colonies. The plan calls for 75% of the remaining fleets in the Outer Colonies to be combined into two massive fleets under command of Admiral Cole and Admiral White while the remaining 25% of the fleet, under Admiral Whitcomb, assists in the evacuation effort and escorting the civilians to the safer Inner Colonies. The Two fleets would then engage in what could only be known as Interstellar Guerilla warfare as the two would lay intricate traps, using the abandoned worlds as what could only be called bait to lure the Covenant into traps and then pouncing with overwhelming numbers. The plan also calls for several more planets to act as Fortress Worlds which the fleets could use as midrange bases without traveling to the inner colonies and leading the Covenant there. The worlds that are chosen are the most populous of the outer colonies with the infrastructure necessary to do so, Arcadia and a world known as Midguard.

2540- With the evacuation of the outer colonies complete save for Midguard and Arcadia, the two fleets move to begin their work, destroying as many of the Covenant as possible while delaying the enemy's march towards the inner colonies and allowing the defenses to be further prepared and fleets upgraded and rebuilt. The two fleets begin to lay intricate traps and successfully begin to bleed the Covenant's forces as supply worlds are attacked and battlefleets are lured to abandoned worlds only to be destroyed by hidden mines and combined fleets in the hundreds of human ships. ONI research into slipspace jammer technology proves successful , allowing jammers to be placed around planets as to not allow anyone to perform intersystem jumps and forcing the Covenant to face defenses head on.

2543- The Overlord defense system above Earth is completed, consisting of over 300 Orbital Defense Platforms and a fleet of nearly 2000 of the UNSC's most advanced ships just to defend Earth alone. The defenses of the rest of the Sol system consist of another 500 ships and another 30 Super MAC ODPs over Mars and 10 over Venus, with Each Colony of the Jovian and Saturn moons defended by 20 warships and various defense stations. The defenses of Reach are expanded as well to include 90 Super MACs and a fleet of 650 Warships. All of the Inner Colonies begin to have around 10 SuperMACs to defend them and at all times at least a fleet of 50 ships.

2546- Research into advanced technology captured by the Covenant proves to be boon as energy shields, the one thing that hampered the UNSC in space, are developed and installed on UNSC ships as fast as possible alongside many other advanced technologies . The Spartans become revealed to the public and immediately are seen as legendary heroes.

2547- Arcadia falls to the Covenant, Admiral Cole and the remnants of his fleet escape to Midguard, the last Line of defense until the Inner Colonies.

2550- The fleets under Admiral White and Cole , having spent ten years successfully harassing the Covenant are pulled back to Midguard where they await the looming attack. The attack comes and the UNSC fleets, each once over 800 ships apiece, now have a combined strength of only 342 ships, only half of which have been refitted with shields , are forced to stand down over three times their number. Supported by Midguard's 23 Super MACs the fleets grind each other to scrap as half of Midguard is invaded by the Covenant ground forces while the UNSC fleet is reduced to 135 ships within three hours, the Covenant fleet reduced to around 300 ships and half of the ODPs taken out to enemy fire. The battle turns into a stalemate as the valiant defenders hold their ground. Five battles take place over the next year as the UNSC is unable to send reinforcements due to the Covenant launching the awaited invasion of the Inner Colonies.

2551- The UNSC manages to hold the Covenant at bay loosing only two star systems and ten worlds as the reinforced defenses and improved ships manage to drive the menace off in a series of hundreds of battles. Any incursions on colonial soil is defeated by UNSC Marines and the UNSC Army.

2552- A large Covenant Armada of over 800 ships, half of them CCS Battlecruisers is detected heading towards Reach. The defenses are prepared as the Colonist decide to all fight rather than flee. The UNSC fleet manages to hold their ground as the battle rages for weeks as both sides send reinforcements almost continually. The defenses hold and Reach is saved. Curiously a Covenant Assault Carrier that was acting as a flagship goes on a random jump towards the middle of uncharted space away from the Inner Colonies after receiving strange signals from beneath the surface of Reach. A UNSC ship, _The Pillar of Autumn _chases after the ship with one of the now 32 surviving Spartan II Supersoldiers, John - 117.

2552- The Events of Alpha Halo transpire.

2552- Operation First Strike takes place as 10 Spartan IIs led by the Master Chief attack and destroy a Covenant battle station and a fleet of 500 ships set to be part of an invasion force with a NOVA bomb. The Spartans uncover the coordinates of four heavily populated Covenant and Sangheilli worlds. An ONI force of prowlers delivers a deadly package to each of the planets, a NOVA bomb, killing billions of Sangheilli and other Covenant species and turning four worlds into asteroids.

2552 (Late)- A small fleet of covenant ships led by the High Prophet Regret jumps into the Sol system. The First Battle of Earth takes place as the Covenant force is slaughtered by the Home Fleet and the Overlord SuperMACs with minimal losses. However one Assault carrier manages to slip through the defenses by using its fellow ships as a shield and lands forces in the tether city of New Mombasa. The Battle of Mombasa takes place as Regret flees via an atmospheric jump, causing widespread damage to the city and nearly destroying the Orbital Elevator, the Master Chief on board the UNSC Frigate _In Amber Clad _commanded by Miranda Keyes manages to give chase.

2552- Events of Delta Halo transpire, Covenant Civil War breaks out.

Early 2553- Second Battle of Earth takes place when Covenant Loyalist forces launch an all out attack on the human homeworld. The battle rages as the UNSC holds the Covenant at bay , the Defenses of the Sol System and Earth proving to be nearly unbreakable to the Covenant, though casualties are high on both sides. During this time the Covenant Separatists led by the Sangheilli, form an Alliance with Humanity as battles rage across Covenant and former Covenant space. The Prophet of Truth, having evacuated the Covenant capitol city ship of High Charity via the Forerunner Dreadnaught, and armed with the code obtained from Delta Halo and Regret, heads to the Battle of Earth.

2553- The Third Battle of Earth transpires as Truth and a fleet of thirty Covenant Capitol ships penetrate the defensive lines over Earth by using the Dreadnaught as a Shield to reach the surface of Africa. There the small fleet, constantly under attack from UNSC ground forces vaporize lake Victoria and excavate a gargantuan Forerunner facility that acts as a portal to the Ark, the control station to fire all of the Halos at once. Truth and his fleet slips through the portal as the Sangheilli and Humans soon give chase. Truth is defeated as is Gravemind and the Flood. when the Master Chief, Sergeant Johnson , and Sangheilli Arbiter Thel Vadamee , activate the re built Alpha Halo and escape using a UNSC Frigate _Foreword Unto Dawn _through the Portal. However the portal collapses and the front half of the Dawn is safely transported to Earth with Sergeant Johnson and the Arbiter inside, and the rear half of the ship is sliced off with the Master Chief and Cortana inside and propelled thousands of light years into the Milky Way.

2553- The Human Covenant War ends leaving the UNSC as well as the Sangheilli and other Separatists victorious , though pockets of Loyalist resistance and fleets remain and Several Prophets did survive the destruction of High Charity. The Brute homeworld of Diasic and the Kig-Yar homeworld of Eayn however remain firmly in Covenant Loyalist control. The 28 year long war costs humanity 23 Billion civilian casualties, millions UNSCDF personnel , and all of the Outer Colonies not burned by the Covenant or ruined by Admiral White's Guerilla campaign save for Midguard, around 451 worlds in total.

2554- The UNSC and UEG Sign a defense treaty with the Sangheilli and begin to rebuild the ruined outer colonies and resettle the colonies that were unscathed thanks to the Inner Colonies remaining intact, where 80 percent of the human population was either concentrated of fled to during the war allowing the re-colonization efforts to proceed swiftly.

2556- The Great Schism still continues as Sangheilli fleets engage the Loyalists in short border wars. The Sangheilli, believed to have lost the technical expertise to create new ships and technology thanks to the Prophets, proves that they in fact did not and begin to create their own weapons and equipment designs. Though the peace and alliance between the Sangheilli and the humans still is in place many Humans begin to keep an eye on their enemy turned ally as a result.

2559- The UNSC is fast recovering from the war when a faint distress signal is received by a patrolling UNSC Cruiser engaging a minor Covenant incursion onto an abandoned UNSC colony .

UNSC Equipment

MA6D Assault Rifle- First adapted in 2431 this rifle shares many looks with the older and conventional rifle the MA5 series as well as being around the same size. However the overall appearance is where the similarities end. The weapon has a unique three barrel layout where the barrels are arranged in a triangle inside the barrel shroud as the weapon uses a firing system known as Metal storm technology to use an electrical charge to ignite the propellant of a 7.62mm tungsten round which , along with each bullet's propellant, is stacked end to end with about 15 rounds in each barrel (45 rounds total). The initial problems with MS tech were overcome as the first round has a 10 inch barrel, the accuracy and muzzle velocity is dramatic, accurate range of 300 yards and a muzzle velocity of 1840 m/s (more than double the MA5 series), and accuracy only improves the more rounds are spent as the barrel length each new round in each barrel has to travel increases. Though the Metal Storm firing system allowed for incredible rates of fire, the firing rate is toned down to that of 750 rounds a minute. All rifles come standard with an under slung 40mm grenade launcher and the D model has, as well as iron sights a holographic red dot sight atop the ammo counter and the miniaturized targeting computer for users lacking a targeting interface. This weapon is known to be able to drain or penetrate standard Sangheilli Energy shields in 4 to 6 hits.

BRM-99 Stanchion II Gauss Rifle- The original M99 Stanchion Gauss rifle was a sniper rifle that served throughout the 2400's and into the Covenant War. However the UNSC Realized that it needed a weapon halfway between the range of a sniper rifle and the MA6 with power also halfway between the two. Gauss technology was in use long before 2538 when this weapon was introduced , but the Stanchion II revolutionized weaponry. Helped along with technology reverse engineered from captured Covenant weapons the BRM is a fully contained Coil Rifle in the size of a Battle Rifle, albeit a bit bulkier. Though it sacrifices fire rate for power. The weapon's 8mm tungsten slugs can take out Sangheilli shields in as little as one hit with its muzzle velocity of 3,600 m/s and the magazine can hold up to 70 shots. The weapon looks similar to the long retired BR-55 Battlerifle but with the smooth features of a MA6 and DMR thrown in. The battery of the weapon is contained in a small magazine like pack attached to the weapon in front of the trigger guard which gives enough power for 1000 fully charged shots, after which the battery is simply ejected like a mag and replaced with a new battery. the Weapon comes with a 2x and 4x scope with full thermal and night vision capabilities.

Marine M-51 Armored Exoskeleton Suit- The UNSC had power armor technology long before the MJOLNIR armor of the SPARTAN II Commandos and can trace its roots to the Mechanichal exoskeletons employed by the United States in the 21st century. Using carbon fibers the M-51 Suit allows for the wearer to leap three times as far as a normal human, run twice as fast as an Olympic marathon runner, lift three times their weight. On top of the nano fibers, which themselves are resistant to small arms fire, composite Ferro- Titanium plates with laminated Kevlar complete with a layer of heat resistant materials. This makes the user able to take several direct hits to the Chest from Covenant Plasma weaponry, though it can only protect against at most 8 hits before succumbing. The newest models have personal energy shields for increased survivability. The UNSC Army uses a simular system while the ODSTs have the more powerful M-62, though all of these power armors look like a minivan parked next to a Race Car when compared to the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor. (Imagine the UNSC Marine armor and gear combined with the futuristic looking armor for Tom Clancy's Future Soldier)

Grizzly II MBT- Based off the venerable Scorpion the original Grizzly Variant had two 90mm high velocity cannons and a flamethrower with a more powerful engine and thicker armor. The Grizzly II was introduced in 2531 and became the most powerful tank ever created. The Grizzly is armed with a 125 mm Gauss cannon, two 50 cal machine guns, a flame thrower and two 25mm anti-air chain guns or LAAGs mounted on the side of the turret, which like its predecessors is towards the rear of the tank more and is slightly flatter as well and is lower towards the main hull. Armor is far thicker and the titano-ferride armor can withstand numerous hits from Hunter assault cannons and several direct hits from a Wraith, as well as dozens of hits from conventional cannon shells. Another feature is that the armor is more smooth with curves in places. The tank usually supports a Black Paintjob . The far sleeker looking tank uses a fusion reactor to power the beast to speeds up to 60 mph.

FS-837 Falken Starfighter- Replacing the venerable Longsword the Falken is a leap in fighter technology and capabilities. under half the size of the Longsword the Falken is half again faster and far more maneuverable. Designed with a long dagger nose with a fully enclosed cockpit that uses viewscreens called a COFFIN system to give the single pilot a 360 degree view the fighter had a deadly swept forward wing design with two large omni directional thrust capable engines that allow the Falken to flip over and spin on its axis for better angles of attack during dogfights, a deadly advantage. Also having two inward swept tailfins and two canards in front of the wing the Falken is just as deadly and capable in a dogfight in atmosphere as in space. Armed with two 50 mm cannons that are far more powerful than the larger cannons on the Longsword as well as a pulse laser and up to 20 missiles for dogfights as well as hardpoints for anti ship missiles and bombs.


	2. Chapter 2

-1**Reviews are greatly appreciated **

**Okay I decided to make some changes to the Race to make the story flow better, but they are not that big of a difference.**

**However dont send me any Reviews saying that this is not cannon, I KNOW. But the changes are only minor is the scale of things, and they also help make the Race slightly less useless.**

Space.

Endless.

Cold.

Dark.

Through the never ending void coasting under its own momentum was a ship, well half of one at any rate that was traveling on a voyage to nowhere.

It was clearly a warship as dozens of guns from point defense cannons to large turreted weapons covered the rear section of the ship.

It was covered in scars of battles, yet the most prevailing feature was the gaping , almost perfect shear that separated this half of the ship from the other.

Under low power the ship's remaining sensors swept the heavens for billions of miles in search of anything.

Those sensors were searching for someone, anyone to come and rescue the ship's invaluable single occupant and his AI companion , Cortana.

Drifting at a steady pace the UNSC Smart AI sighed as she looked over the flowing streams of data and numbers the Dawn's remaining sensors were providing her. 

The constant distress signal she was sending could take as long as twenty years to reach the UNSC, however she had been receiving encouraging signs from observing the constellations and had concluded that they were not in unknown space, so it was possible the UNSC could rescue them soon.

"Six years" she sighed.

It had been six years since the Master Chief defeated Truth and destroyed the Flood. All she could think about was those last moments.

_Flashback_

_ "Floor it Chief we are running out of options here!" Sergeant Johnson hollered over the combined roar of the Warthog and the plethora of explosions all around them thanks to Halo ripping itself apart. _

_ A beam of orange superheated energy flew past the front of the LRV's right front tire to scorch the ground, leaving a blackened scar and a blob of molten metal._

_ John looked in the vehicle's rear view mirror to see yet another swarm of those damn Sentinels coming for them. _

_ "I'm on It! Arbiter give me some help here!" Johnson cried as John spun the Warthog past a collapsing tower at 100 mph, the vehicle's four oversized tires screeching as it fought to stay upright._

_ "I have your back." replied a low alien voice as Thel Vadamee awkwardly turned around in the seat, his large form barely fitting into the human sized seat as it was, raised his Carbine and began to return fire with green hypersonic radioactive bolts._

_ The first bolts impacted and trashed the lead two Sentinels, however three more quickly took their place and were about to fire when the back mounted Chaingun roared._

_ The Sentinels were turned to scrap metal as Johnson eagerly pressed the trigger studs of the 20 mm weapon, spent shell casings flying out of the weapons breach._

_ "Charge reaching 80 percent Chief we have to get off of Halo! The Dawn is just around the next corner! " Cortana worriedly warned._

_ John, survivor of thousands of battles and the slayer of countless Covenant warriors felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up through his MJOLNIR Assault Armor as he turned the wheel to avoid three more beams of energy from their pursuers._

_ Johnson cursed and grabbed at his side as the sudden turn caused him to slam against the armored shield of the Chaingun, his wound he sustained thanks to Guilty Spark trying to kill him and stop them from activating Halo still in pain despite countless painkillers being dumped into his system through his neural implants; his Marine issue M-51 Powered Armor blackened and melted thanks to the rampant Forerunner AI's glancing blow from its weapon._

_ "There it is !" The Arbiter exclaimed as the explosions began to get too close for comfort. The constant roar making everything almost inaudible._

_ The entire "world" was literally falling apart from under them as John sped over a section of plating only to have it collapse just seconds after crossing it. The forerunner metal crashing into the molten lava and metal below._

_ John looked up as the Warthog rounded the final corner to see the beautiful sight of the UNSC Frigate's aft section and its two large engines, the 497 Meter warship hovering in place on its anti-grav system._

_ Relief began to well up in all three of the soldiers as well as the AI as the their escape seemed at hand._

_ "Wait look out!" Cortana nearly screamed into Johns ear._

_ The Spartan looked to out of the left side of the Warthog to see that the swarm of Sentinels that had been following them had flown over the ridge and was now blocking their escape, and all of them were charging their weapons._

_ They had nowhere to go._

_ "So this is It huh?" Johnson chuckled as he brought the chaingun around to face the enemy, as much good as it would be._

_ "Got IT!" Cortana cheered as the three looked at the back of the Dawn which they were still speeding towards and the cloud of Sentinels in front of that._

_ The back three Dual 50mm Point defense turrets spun around and after half a second for their independent radars to lock on and their barrels to speed up, opened fire._

_ 9000 Flak rounds each second tore into the wall of Sentinels._

_ To the three it looked like thousands of oversized firecrackers going off as the Sentinels simply exploded or shattered as the weapons that were designed to take out Covenant Seraphs at ranges of up to 20 miles simply shredded them._

_ The hailstorm of explosions still had not subsided as the Chief floored the pedal as the Warthog's 600 horsepower Hydrogen engine screamed as the LRV shot off the end of the platform at 0ver 140 mph and sailed through the air to the open rear hangar bay of the Forward Unto Dawn..._

_Present _

Warning bells went off as Cortana snapped out of her stupor to see that the scanners had found something.

Pulling up the results of the latest scan she began to scan the gigabyte of data in under a second.

Halfway through she gasped.

After pondering the situation she turned to look at the Cyro tube that held her Jolly Green Giant.

"Looks like Its time to wake up."

_**127th Emperor Hetto **_

_** Bannership of Haleesi Conquest Fleet**_

_** Orbit Of Home**_

Fleetlord Atvar hissed as he looked at the latest reports from his flight of shuttlecraft.

One of the ships in the Conquest fleet had a minor hydrogen explosion on board its main engine block that had cut the thrust output to nothing.

The ship _The 9th Emperor Jessesha _was one of the five ships of the 130 ship strong Conquest Fleet that was designed to store the explosive metal bombs that were to be held in reserve and taken to the Conquest of Haleesi 2, though Atvar would be shocked if they even used them, By the Emperor he would be shocked if one of his Infantry Males even were killed during the Conquest of Haleesi 2.

Haleesi 2 of the Haleesi star system was 5 light years away from Home, as such it would take 34 revolutions of Home to get there (17 years). The natives of the planet were in the bronze age of development, as such spears and swords would do nothing against Killercraft, Landcruisers and bullets.

However Atvar read the report and his tailstump quivered.

A mechanical malfunction ?

It was almost unheard of due to the nature of the Race.

He let his mouth fall open in a ironic laugh as he realized it was something that the Race had not planned for.

The Race planned for everything.

A species of humanoid reptilians (Terrans would call them walking lizards) , and with scales instead of skin they looked like reptilian offshoots of Kig-Yar

Averaging the height of 5 ft 3 inch the species had two eye turrets that could rotate independently, and with scaly skin and a tail stub that almost complemented the rows of sharp teeth in their snout like mouths.

The Race as they called themselves were nearly a million years old , (Old enough to the point where when the Forerunners cataloged and transported the races of the galaxy to the Ark and Shield worlds the Race had to have their entire memory of the event wiped as they were in the Early Steam age.)

Their desert world of Home had been unified for twenty thousand years and was ruled by Emperors who were chosen by bloodlines.

The Race had also conquered a sentient species similar to the Race called the Rabotev of a star system 5 light years from Home.

Their Empire, which they named simply _The _Empire, spanned three worlds including Rabotev, Home, and a uninhabited desert planet 4 light years from Home called Home 2.

What made the Race unique, or strange to any observing Human or Sangheilli, was that they were meticulous to the point of OCD.

Everything was planned for and calculated.

Every possible problem inspected and corrected.

As a result the Race had developed extremely slowly, where as Humanity achieved FTL, developed a sprawling and expansive Interstellar Empire of a thousand worlds ,terraformed whole worlds and fought a galaxy spanning interstellar war; the Race in a thousand years time would rarely change at all. As a matter of fact the Race had been in possession of Sublight spacecraft for nearly five thousand years.

Atvar looked out at the space around Home. Already crowded to begin with the presence of the Conquest Fleet did not help.

The orbit of Home was covered in satellites, from weather observatories, endless amounts of communication satellites and even a couple dozen armed military satellites that made up the almost ancient defense grid for the planet and dated back to before the Race was unified; their missiles and explosive metal bomb launchers (the Race's name for Nukes) more than able to take out any egg addled pirate or asteroid that rarely threatened Home.

Also present were dozens of space stations, from wheel shaped orbital hotel resorts, shipyards, docks for all sorts of craft and ships, sprawling space ports, and even the command and supply base for the Conquest fleet and the warships that made up the space forces of Home's small yet well armed security forces.

In reality however the "Security Forces" were more like heavily armed police. The Race only raised a true military force during times of war. True conflict had only happened when Home was not unified. When the Rabotev had been conquered several thousand years ago was the last time members of the Race actually trained for true war, and the current Conquest fleet Atvar was in command of was the only true military force in the Empire.

Also beyond the planet was a seemingly endless line of freighters, transports, and passenger ships that were heading past the large mining bases and settlements of the single asteroid field of the Home system to the other planets of the Empire, the ships beginning the nearly 4 month long acceleration to 1/3 the speed of light to make the 10 or 13 year voyage. By then any crew or passengers would go into cold sleep to wait the long journey.

Atvar floated in place, the mirror that was on the wall near him showing him that his body paint needed to be re applied soon.

Members of the Race did not wear clothes or wrapping as they knew them as. For all intensive purposes the Race walked around naked all of the time, as their natural hard skin and scales combined with the hot temperatures of Home and the other planets of the Empire meant that they did not have to endure harsh climates that would require such wrappings. The few places where they ever wore wrappings were in labs, when wearing a spacesuit, or Infantry males wearing body armor and battle caps (helmets).

To announce their rank in their society the Race instead painted themselves with body paint. The more complex the paint was, the more important or usually better paid the Member was. As such Atvar's body paint was very intricate and detailed, in fact only members of the high courts, the Royal family and the Emperor himself had more intricate body paint than him.

Atvar looked at the diagnosis for the reason that the explosion had occurred as he floated to his desk, using the clawrails to propel himself towards it, his office not in one of the rotating sections of the bannership.

He let his mouth hang open in a yawn as the explosion turned out to be due to a minor leak caused by a micro meteoroid.

At that his speaker on his desk beeped.

"What in the name of the Emperor could this be now?" he hissed as his tailstump quivered in agitation while answering the call.

"Yes?"

_"This is Shiplord Straha of the 207th Emperor Yower, Forgive me superior sir but our Radar operators have picked something up coming in from beyond the asteroid belt."_

Just hearing the name Straha made the Fleetlord automatically assume that the news was bad.

Straha, the shiplord of one of the more powerful ships in the Conquest fleet as well as being third in command after the _Emperor Hetto's_ Shiplord Kirel, was known for being testy with Atvar.

The two had gotten into so many arguments and disagreements that Atvar wanted to at times sink his teeth into him or beat him with a blunt object.

Restraining himself from letting out a hiss of frustration he hit the reply button, "What is it?"

"_From the density of it our scanner crews believe it to be a dense iron asteroid, though as its trajectory is at a more extreme angle does raise the question of this object being extra solar. However the problem is that it appears to be on a direct collision course for Home. Though I am sure that the Defense Satellites can handle it one can never be too careful. The fleet is in position in the Fourth Lagrange Point to intercept the object before it is in range of the Explosive metal bombs of the satellites. Its range is at about a million miles and closing, and will be in range for an extended range shot from one of our ships' explosive Metal missiles in ten minutes." _Straha replied.

It was possible to hit a slow moving target such as an asteroid with a missile at that range, but to do so required the missile to be programmed to cut its rocket motor and use it sparingly to maneuver to hit its target, allowing inertia to do the work.

It was not a viable solution for combat but for a menial task such as this it was viable, though the calculations were still difficult.

Atvar replied, "What ships are in position to fire? The Bannarship is positioned towards the "rear" of the fleet and as such does not have the object on Radar yet."

"_My ship and five other Combat capable ships." _Straha replied.

Combat Capable ships.

As ironic as it was only forty of the 130 ships present in the Conquest fleet actually carried offensive weapons, the rest were more or less glorified transports with a few defense guns slapped on their hulls. The only reason there were any Combat ships, or warships as some called them, was because of an increase in pirate activity, particularly in the rarely patrolled outer edge of the system. Space Combat had only happened five times during the history of the race, all but four during the time before the unification of Home and once when a group of Pirates banded together along with criminals, and a few egg addled Rebels to attempt to cause trouble, (no one still understood their motives) around 2000 years prior.

The Combat Ships varied in size (from 240 meters to 700) though there were generally three different designs and size classes; Medium, Large, and Bannership. They were armed with a mix of missiles, close range cannons, anti missile - missile systems, close range heavy machine gun turrets, and a couple explosive metal Missiles.

Large Combat Ships and the Bannership _Emperor Hetto_ also carried armed small space craft (humans and Sanghielli would call them Fighters) called Killercraft.(However any Human would have seen them as little more than an armed shuttle with a few more maneuvering thrusters and a couple of missiles and cannon)

Atvar replied, "Once you have the target in range you are cleared to fire an explosive metal missile to intercept. Be sure that all civilian traffic is cleared of the area. I will head to the bridge of my ship, Atvar Out."

_"Master Chief? What are you doing on that ship?" asked the all too familiar voice of Lord Hood._

_ As the supersoldier clutched at the hull of the Forerunner dreadnaught as he finally found his way to an airlock (he had been jumping from one desolate airlock to another to survive the journey, slowly working his way to where the main hull was and no doubt Truth was), only pausing to answer the question as he looked at the space outside the titanic Forerunner ship._

_ The ship had dropped out of slipspace near the edge of the Sol system and was soon making its way towards Neptune at an incredible sub light speed. _

_ It had been months since John had left Earth in pursuit of Regret, but to his relief it looked like the defenses of the Sol system were still alive and online as they passed a graveyard of twisted hulks and floating debris that were once proud Covenant Destroyers, Frigates, carriers and batleships but were clearly blown to hell by MAC rounds, Particle beams and thousands of missiles and began to make a small ring of debris around the blue gas giant._

_ However he did notice the wrecks of dozens of UNSC warships strewn in among the wreckage, a sign that just because they lines were holding didn't mean the battle was not bloody for humanity._

_ He spoke with a cool and confident voice as he simply replied, "Sir, I'm finishing this fight."_

_ It took several seconds for the reply to come in as Lord Hood chuckled, "Good. See if you can kill Truth, though I am sure you are already making your way to do so right now."_

_ Hood paused as static interfered for a couple of seconds before continuing._

_ "We have given the Covenant one hell of a beating. The Home fleet is down to 60 percent of its combat effectiveness and is at around 1700 ships in strength, down from 2800 . The ODP Defense grid is holding and only three Covenant ships managed to slip through and land troops in Cincinnati in North America, Central Europe near Berlin, and in Beijing in Asia, though all incursions were quickly defeated by the ground pounders and the Corps. Mars is holding as is its segment of the Home Fleet, though the Covenant have managed to breach the orbital perimeter there and land a hundred thousand Brutes and other soldiers. The main cities as well as shipyards and Misriah Armories are safe, though battles are still taking place right now we are quickly pushing them back. Venus has been left untouched as they have to go through Earth to get there and Luna is unscathed. However the rest of the Sol system is in much less better shape. Half of the Jovian Moons are under siege and Most of the Saturn moons are under siege. We have destroyed most of the Covenant fleet but it appears they are pulling back to regroup with that Forerunner ship to make a stab at Earth." Hood finished._

_ John took in the information as he neared the airlock, grabbing onto anything on the ship's hull to use to keep from floating away._

_ "Sir I will Kill him and stop him. I dont know why he is charging straight into our defenses like this but I have a good idea what he has planned." John replied._

_ "Is there any way Cortana can send me any Information?" Hood asked._

_ Cortana._

_ Regret surged through his mind as he recalled being forced to leave her on the infested High Charity._

_ All he could think about was what the Gravemind was possible trying to do to her and her programming._

_He shook those thoughts from his mind as he responded, "Sir I was forced to leave her behind on High Charity to keep the Flood from spreading."_

_ There was silence for several moments._

_ More wreckage sailed by._

_ "I trust you made the right choice John. Is there anything else?" Hood asked._

_ John could only imagine how the next bit of information was going to be swallowed._

_ "The Elites and the rest of the Separatists wish to make an Alliance with Humanity." he deadpanned. _

_ Now that was a long period of silence._

_ John could hear people arguing over the connection before another voice came on, this one more gruff and displaying more emotion than Hood usually would._

_ "Those fucking Split Lips want to Ally with us?"_

_ John recognized the voice immediately._

_ Admiral White_

_ "So he managed to send a reinforcement fleet from Midguard and came along too? Of course he would, he bites at any opportunity to get all the action he can." John thought to himself._

_ One of the most decorated men and most admired leaders of the war effort the Admiral's mix of unique charisma, hard determination and his hands on approach to things combined with his unbelievable gift for tactics and strategy made him probably the most admired men in the UNSC. It was no doubt that he was one of the main reasons the UNSC had managed to hold the Covenant at bay for so long._

_ Many people described him as a General Patton in space. _

_ John had to agree._

_ He along with millions of others had heard of him blazing away at Covenant troops who managed to board his flagship, The Warhound, with two pistols and charging at them alongside the shipboard Marines; guns blazing._

_ The problem was that it was well known that his hatred for xenos and his well known impatience would make him a liability for negotiations with anyone._

_ That would be especially true for the Covenant Separatists and the Elites._

_ "They think they can kill billions of people and then say I'm sorry it looks like my ass is in trouble so lets be big happy fucking friends and hold hands and sing Koom Bye Yah and act like nothing ever happened!" the Admiral seethed._

_ In part John couldn't blame him, as the Admiral was forced to use whole worlds as bait to fight the Covenant and had seen millions of soldiers die and hundreds of ships with their crews be destroyed under his command._

_ John also knew that he had lost his brother to the Covenant on a remote outer colony._

_ Lord Hood snapped back at him, "Admiral White I would like to have a conversation with John 117 is that understood?"_

_ Not a second later White replied , "Yes sir Sorry sir. I'm merely expressing my concerns for this information."_

_ "Continue John." Hood spoke._

_ "They have a fleet of around 200 ships coming to Sol in about a day. They went in pursuit but they wanted me to make sure you knew. UNSC forces on Delta Halo have already been working with them to stop the Flood and Halo." John replied as he finally figured out how to open the airlock, which quickly opened with a hiss as he floated into a compression chamber as the lock closed behind him, gravity plating kicking in and allowing gravity to return._

_ "We will agree not to attack them but they will have to prove their words. Get to Truth and Kill him. I'm out, Good luck Spartan." Hood said as the line winked out_

_ John ran a quick diagnosis on his armor as he readied his weapons which somehow managed to survive the journey, his trusty MA6D, his BRM-99 Stanchion II Gauss Rifle, and a M6 Pistol, as well as three Frag Grenades and two plasma grenades. _

_ The Spartan also had a good old 10 inch serrated three sided Trench knife that would be very useful in CQB._

_ He had managed to scour ammunition from Flood Combat forms from High Charity, as such he had plenty of ammo._

_ He loaded his MA6D, sliding the back of the butt down to reveal the three barrels of the weapon. He pulled out a ammunition strip and placed it down the three barrels, the disposable plastic cartridge loading all 45 armor piercing 7.62 mm tungsten rounds. He pulled the plastic strip out, quickly pulling out the now empty strip and tossing it away while he closed the barrel chamber, all in under two seconds._

_ His suits diagnostic read that his MJOLNIR Armor was in good condition, despite the beating it took from Halo and High Charity; the shields were at maximum charge._

_ "Here goes." he breathed as he neared the second airlock with his MA6 at the ready, the reticule on his HUD placed dead center on the door. _

_ At that the door opened with a hiss as John quickly scanned the room beyond._

_ Aside from the usual Forerunner design it was empty, as such John quickly made his way down the hall to the next door._

_ Before he reached it his motion tracker picked up movement on the other side as three red dots appeared on his HUD._

_ He gripped his rifle as he took one last step to the door, which slid opened._

_ Revealing far more than simply three contacts._

_ It was a large bay of sorts that had three levels that had two walkways and a platform, and it was full of Covenant._

_ Around 15 Brutes in their new found Armor, 20 Kig- Yar, most with shields, the others were Skirmishers, and 50 Grunts._

_ "Oh shit." John said aloud as the Spartan and the Covenant looked at each other for a full two seconds before all hell broke loose._

_ "Its The Demon!" one of the Brutes roared._

_ John sprang into action as he brought up his MA6D in a blur and let loose on a pair of Brutes who were closest to the door he exited. _

_ The rifle roared as the three barrels began to spit out 7.62 mm Tungsten at hypervelocity._

_ The Brutes had yet to raise their weapons, deadly Plasma Repeaters and Needle Rifles, before the rounds tore into them._

_ The first three rounds to hit the Brutes were absorbed by the shields, however the shields soon gave way to allow the next four to hit the armor. The bullets flattened by the armor , but by the time the fourth and fifth rounds impacted the jerking Brutes bodies the armor was destroyed, thus allowing 8 bullets, ( four per Brute) to tear them apart._

_ In under three seconds John had turned the two Brute minors into bloody heaps with 23 rounds left in his MA6's barrels, their heavy furry bodies slamming into the ground._

_ John turned and began to strafe his enemies, keeping his back parallel to the wall as the first bolts of plasma and supersonic crystalline shards began to be fired at him as the Spartan fired on a cluster of 6 Grunts and two Kig Yar Skirmishers whom were blazing away at him with poorly aimed shots and were packed close together._

_ Another long roar of his assault rifle later and the group was torn to shreds, the Grunts methane tanks catching fire or venting streams of methane as purple and green blood painted the wall and ground behind them._

_ John rolled into a spot of cover as twin bolts of blue Plasma impacted his shields, dropping them by a fraction, fired from a Charging Brute Major in Golden armor._

_ With no time to reload or switch weapons the Spartan simply activated the under slung 40mm Grenade launcher on his Assault Rifle and fired the grenade with a low thoonk. _

_ The Brute Major was turned into chunks of meat._

_ Pressing the quick release for the loading mechanism which slid downward John in a flash of movement placed a new ammo strip in the barrels and tossed the empty strip away, pressing the quick release again on the side of the trigger guard sliding the butt of the rifle back into place; fully reloading the weapon in under three seconds as plasma and rounds from Needle Rifles and Spikers tore into the cover he had._

_ Seeing another barricade to use as cover that was closer to the enemy John rolled out of cover and charged at a group of Kig-Yar that were in his way, tearing them apart as he popped into a firing position as bolts of plasma flew around him or impacted his shields, dropping them only slightly._

_ John cut down a Needle Rilfe wielding Brute and two Grunt cohorts before he was forced to drop back into cover._

_ Not wasting anytime John took a Frag grenade and tossed it behind him and over his barricade._

_ Two seconds later the dull boom and alien screams filled the air as John once again popped out of Cover and dispatch two more Kig-Yar with Carbines, and charged headlong at a Brute who was wildly firing its Spikers at him, most of the bolts he dodged in a blur of green but the few that did impact him dropped his shields by Half._

_ The Brute roared in anger as the ape-like alien charged as well, raising the two spikers to use their bayonets in a deadly downward slash._

_ John felt time slow as adrenaline poured into his system as the infamous Spartan Time began to take effect, the movements of the world around him and even the passing bolts of enemy fire looking like slow moving blobs as he chose his next move._

_ What the Brute was not expecting was for the Spartan II Commando to leap into the air, sail just above its head and the raised spikers, twist in mid air with both grace and blinding speed, and in a flash that was hard to track with the human eye, or even Brute, Grunt or Kig-Yar eyes for that matter; sunk his Trench Knife into the base of the Brute's skull up to the grip and pulled it out just as fast before flipping back over and hitting the ground._

_ John spun around on his heels with his Rifle at the ready._

_ The Brute was stock still , holding its weapons in the air in the position he was going to strike the Spartan in._

_ Then after a second the Brute collapsed to the ground with a thud and without a sound, a pool of red humanlike blood and spinal fluid forming around the alien's body._

_ At that a guttural roar of rage filled the air as John turned to see a Brute rush at him in a blind range._

_ Time slowed again as John sidestepped the beast and grabbed the back of its head fur with his right hand that hung out of its helmet._

_ With a blur and a single fluid motion the Spartan twisted, letting the Brutes own momentum help carry it, and slammed the Brute's face into the nearby wall with such force that the helmet broke in two and turned most of the alien's face into a pulp, knocking it into a dazed and stunned state._

_ Just then out of the corner of his eye John saw six more Brutes, ten Kig Yar and fifteen Grunts scurry on to one of the catwalks that ran across the bay and was level to him._

_ All aiming right at him, the hellish energy of their weapon's about to discharge._

_ Without a seconds thought John spun the nearly limp Brute around and placed it in front of him._

_ A meat shield._

_ The smell of burnt flesh filled the air as the armored furry Brute body jerked with each impact like a puppet. _

_ John could not help but see the chunks of flesh flying off and he also felt that his meat shield was also lighter as a result._

_ The firing stopped as the Covenant troops looked on in horror at what they just did, the Grunts in particular visibly shaking as they no doubt though of what their masters would do to them for this._

_ Just then the body collapsed, revealing that there was nothing there._

_ The Covenant troops frantically looking for their targets as the Grunts kept repeating with a much higher volume of alarm, "The Demon cant be killed! We are gonna die!"_

_ Then three loud and high pitched whiny cracks filled the air as three red bolts hit one of the lead Brutes on the platform five times, three times in the chest and twice in the head._

_ The body hit the ground a second later as the Covenant turned to see the Demon sprinting for them with his Gauss Rifle shouldered and his MA6 on his back._

_ Pulling the trigger as fast as the semi auto weapon would allow without overheating the electromagnetic coils he aimed for the Brute next to his first target, a Major with a wicked Plasma Launcher which was charging to unleash a volley of four tracking plasma balls._

_ The major hit the ground two seconds later with five hypersonic tungsten bullets holing its body and taking half of its hide with it, the golden armor crumpled and pierced in six places._

_ Plasma made a literal wall in front of him as his shields began to drop to the danger zone._

_ Running for the edge of his platform John jumped into the air as he began to sail across the distance between the two walkways, firing at the same time as the plasma flew past him, time slowing as Spartan time kicked in again as he finished off the last of the Grunts and Kig-Yar with usually a single shot of 8mm red bolts of hypersonic Tungsten, turning their bodies into purple or green paste. _

_ John landed as he turned to face the four remaining Brutes._

_ "Bring it on." he taunted as the Brutes roared and charged..._

John!

John!

Time to wake up!

John's eyes shot open as he say the familiar glass tube that encased him that was his Cryo Tube.

Dizziness overtook him as the coolant began to leave his system and his organs and body began to slowly wake up from being frozen.

He suppressed the wave of nausea as the wisps of cold air escaped the tube as it opened, much to his surprise not violently so as would be the case were he in vacuum , apparently their was still pressure here in his metal coffin after all.

"John are you alright?" Asked an all to familiar voice.

John looked up from the opened Cyro Tube to see the artificial projected avatar of Cortana standing on her holo pedestal with her arms crossed and with a look of concern on her face.

"I'm alright." John replied as he pulled himself out of the tube, a bit slower than he usually would.

As he stretched to his full height, his MJOLNIR armor dripping off the last of the condensed water and coolant, he spoke in his usual calm tone.

"Whats the situation?"

The AI smiled as she replied, "Im glad to see that you are alright. We have an interesting development. We have been floating through space for six years. Though we dont know if the UNSC or the Elites have heard our transmission I have begun to map constellations that have been mapped before by the UNSC, so we are not in unknown space, simply uncharted. My best guess is that we are about 130 light years from claimed UNSC space before the war broke out. However that is not he reason I have woken you."

She paused as John took his MA6 that he had placed beside his cryo tube and placed it on his back after quickly checking over it.

"We are drifting into a star system that is apparently inhabited by a space faring species unknown to the UNSC or the Covenant."

John quickly mulled this over as he nodded, thinking of the implications and sheer dumb luck, or possibly bad luck, that had happened.

"They however are hundreds of years behind the UNSC in technology and are at best a Tier Four level society. From the scans of the Dawn's remaining sensors and optics I believe we are in their home system due to a large amount of ship traffic, though a fair number of it is outbound and inbound from beyond the system consisting of sublight sleeper ships which most likely means they have a couple of close by colonies. We are passing their asteroid belt and are on a collision course for their planet. However a large fleet of around 130 ships is clustered between us and their moon, and they appear to be military ships of a sort, as we have been scanned many times by very primitive radar by what appear to be warships armed with low yield Nuclear weapons, explosive missiles and machine guns. They normally wouldn't be a threat to us but with the Dawn being only half of herself these days if they decide to fire on us we have a problem. Here are some pictures of them."

John looked to see around 130 ships that stuck out from a swirling mess of ugly and primitive looking ships that looked straight out of the 21st century that were no doubt military vessels due to their same color pattern of white as well as markings on the side in a language he had no idea of.

Most looked like bulk transports with several rotating sections and even rings of rotating habitats outside of the hull to provide gravity. Many had clearly segmented designs that followed as an engine block, a habitat block or cargo hold, and a command section.

The armed ships didnt look much better, as in many cases the rotating sections were mostely done away with save for one or two and a hull that was built to take some damage. He clearly saw a bridge of sorts as well as small turrets and missile tubes.

God did they look horrid!

(For any true nerds out there the Race's Combat ships look like Hyperion Cruisers from Babylon 5)

John then studied the pictures of the world they were approaching as she switched pictures and projected them.

It was clearly a desert world with more land than water and deserts and arid areas that seemed to cover the world. He could make out the lights of cities that dotted a large part of its surface. In the orbit of the world dozens of large space stations with a spinning wheel design to provide gravity that littered its orbit as did thousands of satellites and space craft going to and from the surface. Cortana also noted that there seemed to be several dozen more armed warships orbiting the world as were around 48 armed satellites with nukes that seemed to make a rudimentary defense grid.

As John finished he asked, "Do we know what kind of creature's these aliens are?"

"There is no way to know for sure until we meet them." Cortana replied.

"However I have been monitoring their transmissions for the last day and have begun to make a translation program thanks in part to the Forerunner data I have." She replied happily as she seemed to be showing off as she placed her hands on her hips.

John smiled.

"However that is where our problems begin. They dont appear so far to be hostile but from what I have been able to translate from that large fleet it appears that they believe us to be a large Iron asteroid, which is understandable due to their primitive radar not being able to penetrate the remaining armor plating and the hull of the _Dawn_; we must look like a super dense rock to them. As we are heading towards their planet I'm afraid that they are planning to blow us out of the sky with a Nuclear weapon, or what they call an "Explosive Metal Bomb"."

John tensed Up.

Cortana noticed and replied, "If the _Dawn_ were half the ship she used to be we could take multiple direct hits to our hull and armor and be fine even with our shields down, but do to the state the ship is in one underpowered nuke would be enough."

"How do we keep this from happening?" John asked

"Luckly the Dawn still has its reactor intact , even if damaged. The ship happens to be heading towards them engines first or "backwards" if you will so all we have to do is initiate a burn from the main engines to stop us. That should get their attention that we are artificial and we can go from there. The Hanger bay is intact as is the remaining vehicles in the vehicle bay. We can take a Falken fighter or a Pelican to make contact with them if they dont send over a ship first. Also the armories are mostly intact as are several of the defensive turrets which I can use to defend us if they..." Cortana stopped in her tracks.

"They have locked on and are launching A Missile at us! Nuclear by the looks of it! I am initiating the burn now and bringing the defensive turrets I can online to intercept it!"

After entering the command room of the 127th Emperor Hetto Atvar immediately began to watch over the interception of the asteroid as the males on the bridge bowed in respect , which Atvar waved off as he asked the shiplord of the Bannership, Kirel, about the situation.

"Sir the object had been locked on by the Emperor Yower which Is ready to fire the missile when ready. All we need is your order superior sir." Kirel finished with an Emphatic cough.

"Tell him he may fire when ready." Atvar replied as he sat down in his command chair, the gravity on the rotating section of the ship allowing him to do so.

"It shall be done", the communication officer named Ewerlo replied as he spoke to Straha and his ship the Emperor Yower.

"They say they are firing." The officer spoke as the Radar operator confirmed what Ewerlo said as the Radar picked up the explosive metal missile shooting away from its Combat Ship and racing towards the asteroid.

The seconds ticked by as suddenly the Radar officer frantically began to yell, "Superiors sirs the object is slowing down and we have some high readings from our other sensors from the object!"

"What?" Atvar and Kirel both asked bemused at the same time.

"Asteroids dont slow down." Atvar spoke.

"Sir the radar officers on the rest of the fleet and the Emperor Yower confirm it." Ewerlo cut in as he no doubt heard the same exclamations from the rest of the fleet.

"Get the optical telescope on it at once!" Atvar ordered.

He had a strange feeling about this in his liver.

"Already done superior sir." another male shouted over the rising din.

"Then put it up on the projector screen! Kirel commanded.

At that the screen flashed to life as the image presented to them made all of the Race's eye turrets snap to the screen and their hearts catch in their throat.

"By the Emperors what is that?" Kirel breathed.

Atvar couldnt answer as he too studied it.

It was clearly not an asteroid.

It was what looked like ship. And unlike any other ship he had ever seen.

It was of a dull tan color with few graceful lines. But Atvar's training and military ingrained mind immediately saw what it was.

It was a warship of some sort.

And it looked advanced.

That was easy enough to figure out as there were dozens of turreted weapons all over the ship.

On the side of the ship that was facing the fleet there was markings and a large strange looking bird of prey clutching a world with outstretched wings and stars set under the wings as well as marking that were clearly alien inscribed under them.

Atvar and many others noted that the ship seamed to have been cut in half as there was a almost perfect slice into the ship as well as a small debris trail.

"_What in the galaxy could have done that?" _Atvar thought.

They watched as two large engines on the rear of the ship ignited with a bright burst of thrust that visibly slowed the thing down. The burn lasted for five seconds before the unknown ship came to a halt.

"By the Emperor ...We may have made contact with another space faring race." Kirel breathed as others on the bridge nodded , the implications staggering.

Perhaps the Empire wasn't the center of the universe?

Atvar inwardly cringed as he thought of the implications it held for society.

"Superior Sir!" The radar male shouted, "The Explosive Metal missile is still heading for the ...the unknown contact!" the male deciding not to call it an asteroid anymore.

"By the Emperor is there anyway Straha can stop it?" Atvar asked.

"_By the Emperor we discover a ship from an unknown species that are probably as advanced as we are and the first thing that happens is we anciently blow it up?"_ Atvar thought with horror.

"No superior! We never designed our Explosive metal missiles to have a fail safe!" Ewerlo and the radar officer as well as the _Emperor Hetto's_ weapons officer shouted at the same time over the shouts and the din that all the other males on the bridge were making as they frantically read reports aloud .

"By the Emperor no!" Kirel breathed.

"Impact in ten seconds!" the Radar male called off.

Atvar turned both of his eye turrets to the unknown ship as he helplessly looked at what could only be its last seconds.

What happened next he would remember for the rest of his days.

As the missile was seconds from turning the ship to atoms, a bluish beam of light shot from one of the smaller turrets on the ship and swatted the missile out of the sky.

"By the Emperor what was that..?" Kirel asked as Ewerlo had to take off his headset as the same questions overwhelmed his hearing diaphragms from the entire fleet.

"Was that a directed energy weapon?" Atvar asked himself aloud as males ran frantically around the command center of the ship.

"Impossible..." Kirel breathed. "The power to make an energy weapon is...too high to allow it. How could..." he stumbled.

At that Ewerlo excitedly turned to the Fleetlord, "Superior sir I am receiving some unusual if shetchy signals from the ship. As it is obviously heavily damaged I think it is trying unsuccessfully to communicate with us!"

The young male was about to leap out of his seat in excitement of First Contact.

The prospect of first contact with an advanced space faring species had always been dreams of many members of the Race, even Atvar himself harbored some small hatchling wonder of what was possibly out in the stars.

Atvar snapped from his stupor and turned to the Radar operator, "Are there any more indications of the ship activating any weapons?"

"No superior sir, however we have been scanned multiple times by what I assume is some sort of Radar, but it is either too different or far more advanced than anything I have even heard of for me to recognize it." the male replied.

Kirel spoke to Atvar, "How do we know this thing isnt hostile? It is clearly a warship."

It was a good question, and one that Atvar had to answer.

"There is no way of knowing for sure until we investigate it ourselves. That was most likely an advanced anti-missile system, and due to the ship clearly being cut in to, which by the Emperor I dont want to meat what possible did that, I would believe that most of its offensive weaponry is either gone or offline. We have to investigate this ship. We may find it to be empty or we may not, wither way we will learn many things that will change the Empire, and we have a duty to do so to protect the Empire."

At that Atvar turned to the males on the Bridge, "I am ordering for this area of space to be quarantined until further notice. Contact the Emperor and the Royal Palace and inform him of what happened, and keep him constantly updated and listen for any possible orders. I want two shuttlecraft loaded with Infantry Males and any scientists we have as well as any researchers to dock with that ship and find out what you can. Be careful and if contact is made do not I repeat do not do anything hostile."

"You sure cut that a little close." John chuckled as he switched off the view screen in front of him.

"Hey I shot it down." Cortana snapped.

"The Pulse Lasers are barely working as it was and the 50 mm CIWS is offline."

John chuckled, "Well in any case what should are next course of action be? They clearly have not fired another missile and from the amount of radio traffic they certainly took notice that we are not an asteroid."

"I cant decrypt their signals due to damage to the Comm array. But I can however detect that they are taking the first move." Cortana replied.

John cocked his eyebrow, "And how do you know this?"

"The Sensors detect two craft that appear to be shuttles of some sort heading for us that are packed with 20 lifesigns apiece." Cortana replied with a chuckle.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

** Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

-1**Thank you for the reviews, I was worried that this story might not be well received due to the fact that the Worldwar series has been around for a while and thus sometimes forgotten.**

**However I still love to read your reviews, even if they are simply saying to keep going.**

****

Flight leader Teerts eyed the alien ship with a mix of awe, suspicion , and a trained eye turret.

He took in as much information about the ship as he could and looked for any possible signs of activity or hostility from its awesome array of weapons.

"_Which one shot down the missile?" _He thought to himself as he and his nose gunner, a trustworthy male named Xarol, along with another Killercraft piloted by his flightmate Gefron and his Gunner Rolvar, escorted the two shuttlecraft to the target, the four craft using a long burn before coasting towards the exposed area of the ship where they had planned to dock.

Teerts eyed the ship with both of his eye turrets, the flight lead ready to boost out of trouble or fire his 8 missiles at the target (_For all the good he knew it would do), _while Xarol kept using his headgear mounted on his breathing apparatus and helmet to track the craft's 20mm chin cannon, searching for potential hostile targets.

"_Was it really an energy weapon that did it?" _

He and most of the other members of the Conquest Fleet kept asking themselves that question as they approached the ship and surrounded it, keeping a few thousand miles between it and them.

"I cant believe we might just be making first contact with a race of advanced space-faring species!" Xarol almost squealed over the radio.

"This is a most exciting time for the Empire indeed." Teerts was forced to admit, his calm demeanor as well as his attention to detail that had lead him to be named a squadron leader forced aside for a moment as he looked at the alien ship.

"_What kind of species could have made this? Its only half of a ship but that half has enough weapons, half of which I cannot recognize in function, that makes it look like it could take on the Conquest fleet." _

As he adjusted his pitch and came closer to the target, his missiles still giving the shrill tone of a lock, he got a better look at the ship from around a mile away as he cut power to his craft's four large wing mounted engines and thrusters.

The ship already seemed larger than about half of the Combat Ships and it this was only half of it!

As his eye turrets went over the gaping slice into the ship he could not help but notice how clean a cut it was.

It was like a Shkelkwank cutting beam had sliced it off!

There were clearly two large engines that were on the side of the ship at the rear as well as what looked like a large bay of some sorts at the bottom of the hulk. He could make out what seemed like large doors on the "bay" area as well as several smaller ones on the side near the large slice; one of which was clearly cut into two by it revealing a large open area in what was once the interior. The smaller bays seemed too small in function to be a large docking place but too small to be for shuttlecraft or what ever these species used.

Maybe a Killercraft launching bay?

Then he noticed the exposed interior of the ship.

As expected he could not see far into the ship as hatches had closed as they would on any Race ship had a section become exposed to space, but what struck him was that the hallways and exposed rooms seemed to be poorly made for travel in zero gravity.

That led him to another discovery.

He saw no discernable rotating sections for simulating gravity.

"Interesting." He spoke aloud over the radio, "I can see no signs of a rotating section to simulate gravity."

Gefron replied as he too maneuvered his Killercraft to a position closer to Teerts's angle, coasting only several hundred meters away from him and Xarol's Killercraft.

"Maybe they don't have to simulate gravity." he spoke as a bit of interference crackled the connection for a second.

Teerts's mouth hung open in a laugh, "Are you suggesting that they may have artificial gravity? Maybe your egg was shaken a few too many times."

Gefron hissed over the radio, "It was not you pheromone senseless beffel. We have already seen directed energy weaponry used by this craft to shoot down a missile. It is not senseless to assume that these species may have even more advanced technologies."

Teerts's had to admit his reasoning was sound.

"Maybe your right, maybe your not. But the landing party is about to find out for us." He replied as he looked at the two shuttle craft struggle to find a suitable place to dock.

****

"Well that certainly is a _different _ design for a Fighter." Cortana spoke as John, who had hooked himself to an exposed hatch observed the two craft through the scope of a SRM-89 Sniper Rifle, the Spartan having exited the pressurized area of the ship and ventured to the part of the _Dawn_ that was opened to space, as he wanted to get a better look at just who they were dealing with.

"It is a different design, interesting one though, certainly not good for high speed dogfights but for quick agility it could have a use." John replied as he focused on keeping the crosshairs on the cockpit of the ship, ready to send a 12.7 mm Depleted Uranium Penetrator through the large windscreen of the "Race" craft.

It looked like some designer had taken the cockpit of a Sparrowhawk gunship or any other ancient helicopter gunships, more likely a Cobra, and placed it with a short and stubby fuselage with four thick x shaped wings that each had an engine and thrusters on the wing tips. He also eyed an armament of six to eight missiles and a chin gun that was on a underslung turret on the nose of the craft, most likely a 20 millimeter.

Ugly, but interesting to say the least.

"They would be torn apart by Seraphs, but I think if one were to employ them more like a gunship, as in getting close and using maneuverability to you advantage to dodge fire while using that chin cannon they could be of use." Cortana spoke to herself.

John chuckled as he began to soak in all the information that he could about the two shuttles that were in the process of docking with the _Dawn_.

The two looked almost shockingly similar to early Earth shuttles, even the original space shuttle.

Cortana cut in as he began to move back towards the hatch and into the _Dawn._

_ "_Those ships didnt seem to have much space in them, these species are most likely smaller than humans."

As the hatch closed and pressure began to return, as did gravity, John grunted as he placed his Sniper Rifle on his back next to his Gauss Rifle, choosing to wield his trusty MA6 instead.

Cortana huffed as he made his way down the corridor dimly lit by emergency lighting while heading towards one of the _Dawn's_ Armories, "I think your packing plenty already. You know you intimidate already but packing enough weaponry to take out a small army of Brutes might, well pardon my French, scare the shit out of them."

As John walked into the small armory lined with rows of weapons, from MA6 s, Gauss Rifles, AA-22 Automatic Shotguns, M90 CAWS Shotguns, M8 Metal Storm SMGs, Older Model M7S SMGs, LAAGs, Missile Pods, Powerful M-642 Squad Machine Guns, Heavy Gattling guns ,Jackhammer Missile launchers, Ancient yet still useful Javalins, Sniper Rifles of various sizes and classes, Spartan Lasers and Flamethrowers; most left untouched during the joint UNSC Fleet and Elite Fleet's journey and battle at the Ark, he sighed, "Well ...you know me?"

"Damn I knew you were going to say that." the AI sighed as John found what he was looking for , a Model II Spartan Laser, which he quickly traded out the Sniper for.

The Model II Spartan Laser was just as powerful as the previous shoulder fired anti-vehicle laser/particle beam, the difference was that the weapon, coupled with also being ten pounds lighter, could fire 30 shots before its battery need to be either recharged or swapped out. The true beauty of the weapon however, especially for the SPARTAN II Commando, was that the battery could be recharged via the MJOLNIR'S reactor, thus giving it unlimited power for firing.

Now THAT would and had come in handy.

Plus with its 2x zoom and thermal imagine, (not that the MKOLNIR's VISR system didnt already do enough) it could be used as a sniper, abet a overkill one.

Placing it on his back John picked up two M6S Magnum Pistols and attached them to his thigh plate.

As he made one last sweep around the armory and found what he knew would be handy, especially if he were to have his more obvious weapons removed yet still remain armed.

The unforgettable hilt of an unused Type 1 Energy Sword, better known as a Plasma Sword.

"It IS my birthday." John chuckled as he took the weapon and placed it in a thigh storage compartment.

"Are you done shopping?" Cortana teased.

The Spartan rolled his eyes as he decided to play along with the joke, "Yes Honey Im done. "

Cortana actually laughed at that one as he exited the armory, "Yes my Jolly green giant. We need to stay out of sight and observe these creatures. The remaining sensors show that they have docked and are making their to the corridor that leads to the main hanger bay. "

****

"Curse these bulky vacuum suits." Ullhass hissed as he made his way from the docked Shuttlecraft's airlock and through the ship's airlock that for some reason opened for them, saving them time and no doubt effort.

Being the last male of the twenty member team Ullhass sealed the door as his fellow males and his friend Risten looked on.

"Lets move forward. Be careful. And remember, if we make contact with an alien dont shoot." the leader of the boarding team named Woopah ordered.

Woopah actually had only been the leader of the team for three minutes now as the Conquest Fleet, and the Race as a whole, lacking a plan for such an event had simply threw in researchers and Infantrymales onto shuttles and sent them to investigate, not even declaring a proper leader.

Right before the shuttlecraft had docked they had decided that Woopah was the impromptu leader.

Risten could not decide wither to quiver his tailstump in excitement or stress as his eye turrets gazed at the large , drab alien hallway of the ship.

"_By the spirits of Emperors past I'm searching through an alien spaceship!" _Risten thought to himself as he slowly pushed himself off a wall and floated towards the next closed door about thirty yards away, keeping his machine rifle at the ready.

"These hallways are strange." a member of the team noted.

"True, these hallways seem too large for a member of the Race, these aliens must be large." Woopah agreed as he motioned for Risten and Ullhass to take point as they neared the next door.

Risten and Ullhass reluctantly agreed as they floated forward, so used to zero gravity that they flipped over the group and positioned themselves in front of the bulkhead, which let out a strange chime and opened, revealing another long hallway like the last, this time with doors on either side

Ullhass and Risten immediately snapped their weapons up, searching for hostiles.

They were trying to improvise as much as they could, seeing as they had not trained for this as the Race had not planned for a scenario such as this; forcing them to apply rules used when entering a house for close quarters battle.

And they clearly felt uncomfortable doing so.

The Race hated improvising.

"All clear!" Risten called out as the group let out a relived hiss.

"Good." replied a clearly flustered researcher whose task on the Conquest Fleet had been to study the physiology of the natives of Halessi when they Conquered it.

He was thrown haphazardly into the group by Atvar himself who wanted researchers involved no matter what they specialized in, it was better than nothing, a testament to how poor the Race performed at improvising when not having a plan.

Risten recalled his name being Tttomalss if he remembered correctly.

What a strange time indeed.

Risten pushed himself forward through the Bulkhead...

And then what happened next wanted to make him jump out of his scales in fright and surprise as he quickly felt his weight return to him and his booted feet settled down on the floor, the sudden change making him almost crash into the deck.

"By the Emperors!" Risten and Ullhass exclaimed as Risten got to his feet, something that should not be allowed to happen in space without the simulated gravity of a rotating section.

"_I feel like I am on the surface of Home!" _He thought with awe.

All the members of the team were stunned to silence.

Risten could see their open mouths through their visors.

After about a minute the researcher Ttomalss, finally spoke.

"A...Artificial Gravity?" he stammered over the radio.

"How can this be possible?" Woopah asked, his eye turrets still locked on Risten's feet.

"I..I dont know." Risten finally stammered as he managed to break his own awe at what he was experiencing. "I feel like I am on the surface of Home."

"Let me try." Ullhass spoke as he slowly propelled himself through the airlock, his Rifle at the ready as if the floor was going to spring up and eat him.

"Wait..." Woopah reached out In an attempt to stop the eager male, but his fingerclaws fell short.

Ullhass slowly, and with more grace, "fell" down to the floor as the gravity pulled him down.

"By the Emperors..." Ullhass squeaked as he too felt the pull of gravity, and soon felt no different than being on the surface of Home.

After about a minute of Risten and Ullhass practicing moving around to see if it was indeed true, Risten motioned for the rest of the team to come through.

"It will make the investigation much easier to accomplish." Risten reasoned with a still somewhat reluctant Woopah.

Risten didn't blame him for his giddiness , it was his duty to be cautious and alert to potential dangers.

Woopah hesitated for another moment before hissing, "That is truth. Move forward team, just...be careful."

Risten began to admire the male who was just as young as he was for being able to take on the responsibility of being a leader, he knew in the back of his mind that so many were not able to do so.

Slowly and one by one the members of the team went through the hatch, each one exclaiming in awe of the feeling of gravity where by all reason shouldn't have been.

Ttomalss took photos of the scene with his camera, no doubt the Fleetlord would need to see this.

As the last members of the team went through the bulkhead closed, emmitting a hiss as it sealed.

"Im detecting oxygen and nitrogen entering the hallway through vents. The mixture seems to be the right one for us to safely breathe."Ttomalss called out as he read to the team what all of the researcher's special equipment strapped to the back of his suit told him.

"So these aliens may not be that different from us." Woopah spoke aloud to himself.

He then turned around to the team and motioned for Risten, who obliged and stepped forward.

"Superior sir?"

"I want you to slowly take off your helmet and take in a breath, see if Ttomalss is right about us breathing this." Woopah ordered.

He then turned to Ttomalss, "You speak truth when you say you cant see any toxins that may harm.?"

Ttomalss nodded, "Yes superior sir."

Woopah then turned to Risten and let out an emphatic cough.

"_Go ahead."_

Risten slowly reached up and pressed the release mechanism for his helmet, the air hissing and escaping the suit in a whoosh as Risten held his breath, keeping the helmet close as he was ready to slam it back down in case he needed to.

Risten slowly and reluctantly, took in a deep breath.

It was like the air of a spacecraft, just a little stale as it had no doubt been constantly circulating for some time.

Risten dropped his mouth in a laugh as he turned to the rest of the team as if to prove he was not about to keel over dead.

Woopah nodded and removed his helmet, clipping it onto the side of his suit as the rest of the team did the same.

"Lets get moving.." Woopah ordered.

The team made their way down the corridor and stopped at a large door that was marked in alien writing.

"Wonder what that means?" Ullhass asked.

At that Risten merely answered, "Lets find out."

He skittered over to the door which opened for him.

Risten stopped moving as his eye turrets seemed to lock onto what lay in the room.

The others of the group came to his side.

"Risten what in the..." Ullhass stopped as he too saw what Risten did.

It was a gigantic bay , though the word seemed to not do it any credit.

It was far larger than any in the Conquest fleet. even the ships that held the landcruisers, Killerplanes and infantrymales.

And it was full of alien war machines.

"By the Emperors Spirits..." Woopah muttered as he looked up to see three more levels full of alien craft.

Arrayed before them on the level they were on were some of most advanced and deadly looking landcruisers Risten had ever seen.

They were big too, about half as long as a Race Landcruiser and about four feet taller.

Risten couldn't help himself as he skittered closer to the black clad war machine for a closer look.

It was different from any Landcruiser the Race had even used in centuries past. It had four sets of tracks that were each in an armored pod that covered all but the very front , bottom and back of the tracks. The turret was placed towards the rear of the landcruiser and it was bristling with powerful and advanced looking weapons. Most prominent was the massive main cannon that looked a little odd to him, but he just couldnt tell what.

On either side of the turret were two multi-barreled guns that were recessed into the turret and covered in armor.

"_Most likely Anti Plane guns."_

He also picked out a coaxial machine gun as well as one that was mounted on the main hull next to the drivers well protected copula.

"By the Empire that thing looks like it can stop a starship." Ttomalss spoke aloud.

The group nodded in agreement as one of the other males called out, "These landcruisers have strange burns on them. Some look like weapon impacts but there are even places where the armor looks slightly melted."

Risten, Ullhass and Woopah turned and indeed saw what the Infantrymale was pointing out.

Of the 16 landcruisers present, 15 of them had prominent burn marks and scorching .

"What in the Spirits' names could have done that?" Ullhass asked as Ttomalss went over and examined more closely, taking pictures of everything he could.

After about a seconds worth of thought Risten spoke, "I know how this sounds but given that we have seen this ship use energy weaponry it wouldnt be too unlikely for energy weaponry to have caused those damages."

Several team member's mouth fell open in laughter, but several others did not, including Woopah, Ullhass and Ttomalss.

Seeing this the laughter stopped as Ttomalss nodded in agreement.

"As hard as it is for me to even believe I agree that that is a sound assumption. By the Emperors this ship has thrown all reason that I know out the window." Ttomalss hissed.

Woopah then coughed, "If that is truth and those are battle scars then that means these people were at war with someone or somethings." He finished in a low tone.

Risten's hatchling inside of him immediately began to run wild.

"_A war in space!"_

_ "_By the Spirits of Emperors past I would not want to run into whatever did that." Ullhass added as the team made there way over past a row of more armored war vehicles, these looking like advanced wheeled Infantry Fighting Vehicles with two cannons and machine guns in a small turret.

Finding a staircase that was clearly built for larger beings the team made their way up to the second level where their eye turrets again could not rotate enough in their sockets as they looked at the alien war machines.

There were more IFVs, Strange and overpowering looking tracked Mobile artillery vehicles. Small four wheeled recon vehicles that had either a large machine cannon or an even stranger looking large gun on the back. Tracked Anti plane vehicles with frightening looking cannons and missile launchers, and more vehicles whose function they could not identify.

The group then looked to the third level where killerplanes and spacecraft of all sizes were.

Some looked like helicopters but with two large and odd looking engines mounted on the wings. Four looked like advanced Attack helicopters with weapons that made his tailstump quiver in fear but with strange engines and fans in the wings that were also loaded with missiles.

Then there were Eight larger craft who looked somewhat like a very advanced shuttlecraft they too were armed to the teeth.

"By the Emperors..." Risten muttered.

****

The moment the aliens had stepped into the main vehicle bay John very nearly shot them on sight.

He was hiding on the third level of the Vehicle bay on top of one of the suspended Pelicans. And he was aiming his Gauss Rifle directly at the alien's heads.

They looked almost exactly like Kig-Yar.

It was only Cortana's plea for him not to tear the group apart that made him take his finger of the trigger, though he still kept it close.

The more John observed them the more that they looked like reptilian offshoots of Kig-Yar.

The were all he same general height, about 5 ft 3 inch or 5ft 5 inches.

They were currently wearing vacuum suit of sorts and most were carrying old style assault rifles that were on the small scale due to the smaller stature of the species.

As John and Cortana took in every detail they began to notice the differences between Kig-Yar and these aliens.

Though they did have a similar snout and face, the similarities ended there. They had green scaly skin as well as eye turrets like those off of a Chameleon. Also they had a tail stump and their legs were not reverse jointed.

"They look like Lizards." John spoke to himself.

As they skittered around the Grizzly II Tanks Cortana chimed in, "I've finally managed to crack their language and develop a translation matrix for your suit. You can listen in all you want."

The aliens, or as they were apparently known as the Race, made their way from the third level and began walking down the corridors to one of the remaining Fighter Bays as John turned on his helmet's translation gear, shadowing them all the way, moving like a ghost in half a tons worth of the most advanced suit of powerarmor ever created.

One of them seemed to be contacting one of the ships in the ungainly fleet that now surrounded the _Dawn_, as Cortana picked up a radio transmission for him to listen in to.

_"Fleetlord sir these aliens are extremely advanced. They have technologies that only a gifted fiction writer could think of!" _

The static of the transmission cut in as they waited for a reply from the Lizard's commander.

"Well at least we know for sure that we are far more advanced, It makes it easier for us to get out a jam if necessary." Cortana spoke into his ear as he crept like a shadow down the corridor, never letting the Lizard's leave his weapon's targeting reticule.

"_Is that so Ttomalss?" _came the reply , "_What sort of technologies do they have?"_

The Lizard named Ttomalss, whom John noted as being unarmed and carrying itself like a civilian would despite the differences between species, replied.

"_Fleetlord sir they have artificial gravity! "_

_ "Is your brain addled senior researcher? There is no way that that can be truth, our scientists said that it is impossible to create an artificial gravity field centuries ago," _The apparent "Fleetlord" replied in a mocking tone.

One of the armed Lizards cut into the conversation and came to the aid of the one named Ttomalss, "_Exalted Fleetlord this is Infantrymale Risten of the investigation force. Researcher Ttomalss speaks truth about the artificial gravity. We are all curently walking freely around this ship as if we were on the surface of Home. I believe the researcher has photos that can prove to so."_

The one named Ttomalss nodded in agreement, "_Yes superior sir! I am downloading them to your ship as we speak."_

"He is sending files to one of the larger armed ships," Cortana dully noted.

After about a few minutes, which the Lizards spent traveling through several abandoned crew cabins, all of them eerily neat, the Fleetlord replied.

"_By the Emperors! My mind wants to reject this! This ship could revolutionize the Race! I apologize for doubting your Researcher. But these other images.."_

Ttomalss finished his sentence, "_Are almost disturbing. These aliens are clearly powerful, and I can only guess that they were fighting some other advanced species."_

The researcher stopped talking as the group walked into one of the three remaining fighter bays.

Normally the UNSC Frigate would carry two Falken starfighters In each bay, 12 fighters in total. But this bay only held one due to the battle of the Ark.

And as John slipped into the bay he clearly could see that the Lizards were impressed by it as they walked around the predatory looking craft.

John caught one of the Lizards simply mutter a phrase he had hear many times while tailing them.

"_By the Emperors..."_

****_  
_**-**

"My eyes wish to reject what they are seeing." Atvar spoke aloud as he and the assembled shiplords stood in the large meeting chamber looking at the images that the teams were sending that were projected on a large screen for the hundreds of assembled shiplords to see.

"No doubt these aliens can change the course of our history." Kirel said.

Then the shiplords began to hound him with questions.

"Have we made contact with any aliens?"

"Do we know what they look like?"

"Are their weapons a threat to us?"

The questions became so much that Atvar finally let out a hiss and almost yelled into the microphone, "Silence!"

Atvar let out a sigh before speaking, shi tailstump quivering in agitation, "What we do know is that these aliens are apparently very advanced. Artificial gravity, advanced Killercraft with designs that indicate atmospheric capability, some of the most powerful looking Landcruisers the Race has ever seen..."

"Excuse me Superior sir but I must ask an important question." an all too familiar voice interrupted him.

Atvar's eye turrets turned to see Shiplord Straha arrogantly standing from his seat.

"_Damn him_."

Kirel stood up next to Atvar's podium and shouted, "You will not speak until the Fleetlord..."

Atvar waived him off, he wanted to hear just how addled this question was.

_Or how intelligent... _

Straha's mouth hung open in laughter as he spoke, "Thank you Superior sir. If we manage to make contact with an alien, what shall we do with it? It is obvious that these aliens could be a threat to the Race, a very grave one."

"Nonsense." One of the other shiplords chuckled, "The Race will always be the center of civilization, even if they are a threat they will be dealt with."

The male spoke with absolute confidence.

Atvar looked around the chamber to see that many shiplords agreed with him, but he also noted that a growing number, himself and Straha included, looked doubtful.

The arrival of the ship had changed everything.

Atvar raised his hand to silence the crowd.

"The Emperor has ordered us to communicate with it peacefully and to not unless it proves hostile to kill it or them. His majesty believes that there is much to gain from this ship, and he believes we will gain even more if we make first contact."

****

Risten's eye turrets felt like they were going to dye from exhaustion.

Never in his life had he seen so many interesting things!

After seeing the most advanced and deadly looking Killercraft even his hatchling self could have imagined, the team had went through crew quarters that we filled with large sleeping mats that were strangely suspended above the floor.

There they had found several strange red colored wrappings that were clearly meant to be worn by aliens.

Though why they would even wear such wrappings was beyond him.

Ttomalss had even found an artifact that he believed to be a portable computer of sorts.

Risten and Ullhass hadn't believed him that it was a computer.

The thing was nothing more than a piece of tough glass in the shape of a writing notebook that had a piece of metal on the side with two ports.

They had quickly changed their minds when the thing lit up and displayed alien writing all over its surface after Ttomalss grasped it with his finger claws.

Risten's tailstump quivered as they made it to one of the larger doors that they had yet to go through and explore, the group having marked their tracks with glowsticks.

"Still no aliens, this truly is a ghost ship. I wonder what happened?" Woopah thought aloud as they made it to the large door with prominent alien writing on it.

Risten looked down the dark corridor where the team had just came from, this particular one was only illuminated by the green glow of the glowsticks as the yellow lighting that was on the ceilings of the corridors and rooms were not functioning.

He felt like he was being watched.

Risten heard the door hiss open as he turned to see its contents.

And for the hundredth time that day his eye turrets couldnt see enough.

It was a gigantic armory that was full of some of the most powerful and intimidating infantry weapons he thought could ever be conceived.

"Emperors' Spirits.." Ttomalss breathed as they skittered inside.

Risten looked at one row of weapons to see strange, large and advanced machine rifles that had three barrels in a triangular configuration and a much larger barrel underneath those.

Shaking his head in wonder he turned to see another row of weapons that looked like Infantry Rifles, also futuristic looking, but they had not one but two magazines, one behind the large trigger and one in front of it.

_How did that work?_

Next was a row of large barreled weapons with what looked like a pump on the barrel.

_Strange_

Then there were large and deadly looking machine guns that were probably Male portable.

After that were several more rows of weapons, more rifles, Sniper Rifles so large Risten thought them to be anti Landcruiser guns, gigantic flamethrowers and bulky oversized pistols.

The group stopped at a row of some of the strangest weapons in the room.

There were two types of them.

One was a green massive beast of a weapon that looked like it was fired from whatever these creatures called a shoulder, but it had no barrel that he could see.

The next seemed even stranger.

This had two massive barrels that looked like those off of a landcruiser's of armored vehicle's missile pod.

"Is this an Infantry fired missile?" Ullhass asked as he bent to pick it up, straining as he did so due to its size, as he placed it on his shoulder and examined it.

****

"Cortana that Lizard is about to accidently press the firing stud." John noted with growing alarm as the Lizard's clawed finger slipped ever so closer to the trigger of the Jackhammer Missile Launcher.

"I know, we need to make ourselves known now. We know they are most likely not a threat, and if they are we could cut them apart and probably take out a couple of their ships." the AI replied with growing concern.

"Are you sure that you can translate English into their language through my suit's speakers?" The supersoldier asked as he worriedly eyed the Lizard's hand placement.

"Yes...But you need to..." Cortana was cut off as John made his move.

****

Before Risten could add in his comment a low and strange sounding voice cut through his hearing diaphragms like a knife.

"You might want to be careful with that Missile Launcher."

Risten and the group spun around to see the shadows in one of the corners of the room stir.

They immediately snapped their rifles up, Ullhass dropping the alien weapon.

"Where are you? Who are you? " Woopah shouted before adding, "What are you?"

Risten's tailstump was shaking uncontrollably in fear.

He could fell his heart beating through his suit.

At that with several heavy footfalls came a being that made Risten want to crawl inside of his egg.

It was easily seven feet tall, towering over the group, and it was covered in strange green armor from its head to its two toes.

It was a biped, with two arms that were also armored, and its right was carrying one of the three barreled rifles that Risten had observed, and it was pointed directly at him.

Its face was hidden by some sort of full helmet and it was complete with a golden polarized visor that allowed Risten to see his stunned face, as well as those of the rest of the team, in its reflection.

Risten noticed that its armor had several burns similar to the ones on the landcruisers in the bay, albeit smaller, as well as other scaring.

It was one of the most dreadful things he had ever seen.

"Right in front of you."

TO BE CONTINUED...

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	4. Chapter 4

-1**As some of my readers don't know where the Race comes from (despite the label Halo and Worldwar Series), though I can understand, it is an older series, the Race come from a series of seven books written by Harry Turtledove. **

**The series is about a race of space faring lizards, (The Race) invading Earth in 1942, and deals with the effects of the warring US, Nazi's ,Soviets, British and Japanese forced to band together and fight the invaders as well as the war for Earth.**

**It is a great series, I suggest you read them.**

**Here is the next Chapter Please Review!**

"Right in front of you." spoke the green behemoth.

The armory was silent as Risten could not take his eye turrets off of the alien.

"_I'm making first contact with a real alien from a spacefaring race?" _Risten could not help but think to himself as he looked over at the rest of the group, all of which were still stunned to the point of being frozen in place.

It was almost comical.

Then Risten's mind caught up with him.

"_Wait a minute! That alien just spoke to us in the language of the Race!"_

Risten decided that he was going to be the first member of the Race to speak with this alien.

Nervously he formed the words to do so.

"How do you speak the language of the Race...err my species? You are obviously not familiar with us."

Ttomalss turned his head sharply at him and stared.

"_A infantry male speaks to the alien before me?" _ was what Risten knew he was thinking in the back of his mind.

Then the alien dropped his weapon from its shoulder and held it at his chest, taking the three barrels off of the group, but still no doubt able to snap it up in a hurry.

Risten could not help but think as he looked at its armor that it might be able to slay the entire team. Its suit looked like it had faced far worse than their rifles.

"My suit's helmet has a translator in it. My Artificial...my computers have been intercepting the radio traffic of your fleet and of you allowing my computer to form a translation software." it replied in its lower voice as it stepped into the light of the room allowing him to get a better look at it.

It had no tail stub!

And he noticed that it didnt hunch over as a member of the Race or a Rabotev would to balance itself.

How did it not fall over?

The others of the group finally began to break out of their shock as Ttomalss began to ask questions.

"What are you?"

The alien seemed to hesitate for a moment before answering, "I cant tell you exactly what I am, as there is information that is classified by my superiors, but I am a soldier of the United Nations Space Command , or UNSC for short, and a member of the SPARTAN II Supersoldier Commando Forces under the UNSC Navy. My designation, or rank if you will, is Master Chief Petty Officer 117."

Risten, Ullhass , Woopah and the rest of the group looked at each other as the answer only raised more questions than it answered.

The alien spoke again, though Risten noticed that it cocked it's head for a second before continuing, as if he was listening to someone.

"But as your question seemed to be more directed towards what I am, I am from a race called Humanity, or Humans for short."

Ullhass looked at Risten with a hatchling excitement.

_Its really happening!_

Ttomalss continued.

"How did your ship end up in Home's system? And why is it cut in half?"

"Again, there are details that are classified, but my ship was part of a fleet of warships, itself a warship, as you've no doubt noticed, that was in battle with an enemy of the UNSC. During the course of the battle my ship sustained major damage. The crew evacuated and I was forced to stay behind due to classified circumstances. The battle was at its climax when I and the ship attempted to escape by Slipspace. Due to the damage the ship sustained the attempt failed, resulting in the ship being sliced in half and this half of the ship being propelled through space. I went into Cyro sleep, or as you refer to it as Cold Sleep, and waited. I was awoken when your fleet fired a nuclear missile, or as you call it an explosive metal bomb, at my drifting ship."

So that confirmed it about the theories behind the battle damage.

Risten then decided to speak up, "What is slipspace?"

The alien turned to him and replied, "It is how my species travel between stars at Faster Than Light Speeds."

Woopah immediatly replied.

"Impossible, our scientists have proven that you cannot travel faster than light. Not without going back in time."

Risten agreed, though he like many members of the Race had no idea how speed of light physics worked they were all taught in schooling that it was impossible for objects to travel faster than the limits of light.

"Is this alien lying?" Ullhass leaned over and whispered to Risten.

Apparently the alien heard Ullhass.

"No I can assure you I'm not."

It then turned to Woopah.

"You are correct about objects not being able to travel faster than light without breaking the laws of relativity. I cannot tell you of exactly how it works as it is classified for now, though I can tell you that my species discovered a way to bypass the speed of light by opening up a rip in spacetime and traveling through what is essentially another dimension that allows objects such as ships to travel much faster than the speed of light. We call this dimension Slipspace. It has allowed the UNSC to colonize other planets and star systems far beyond our homeworld." It finished in a slightly peeved tone.

Ttomalss spoke, "In..Interesting, I am a specialist in physiology not physics but I have heard of other dimensions"

It all went way over Risten's snout, it was mostly techno babble to him.

However Risten's mind wanted to refuse to believe it, as did those of many of the other males. Ttomalss still looked like he wanted to point his fingerclaw and call him a liar, but Risten saw a small hint of doubt in his eye turrets.

And it was most certainly about the Race.

"If you dont mind me asking," Ullhass interjected, "But what exactly is this UNSC you keep referring to?"

"The UNSC, as I said the United Nations Space Command, is the military arm of the UEG, or Unified Earth Government, which is the Government, or if you would MY Empire that I serve. The UNSC also administers the Colony worlds that the UEG owns and is what defends the Colony worlds as well as my species' homeworld" It replied.

It was a new thought for Risten, a being that was not subject to the Emperor and saw him as his sovereign.

That made him remember that the Alien was, and was telling them that it was, holding certain information from them that he was told not to by its superiors and _ITS _Emperor, whom he answered to.

Many members of the Race were going to have a hard time adapting to that fact, especially when the Fleetlord no doubt grilled the alien for information.

He was reminded by this fact as most members of the team were shaking their heads in disbelief and whispering among themselves that it was lying.

Risten's tailstump quivered in fear of what the Race's response would be to this discovery. Many would simply ignorantly ignore it and claim that the Race was the heart of civilization no mater what. Risten himself felt part of his brain telling him to not believe a single lie this alien told, but another part didn't.

It was no doubt a sign of the inner battle that most members of the Race would be having with themselves when the public learned of this.

Risten almost jumped as he thought of something.

"Excuse me ...err. alien, but do you have a name?"

The being seemed to go silent for several seconds before it turned to look at him with its golden visor.

"You can call me John."

What an alien sounding name indeed!

"Its a pleasure to meet you, Jaaahn." Risten replied as he gave a posture of respect, having trouble to pronounce the strange name.

"Well..it could have gone worse." Cortana chuckled as John ad the group of Lizards walked back to their shuttlecraft.

They had, after more discussions, most trying to explain that they were not lying about the UNSC, though in reality they had told them VERY little, and that they were wanting to make peaceful contact and relations between the Empire and the UNSC.

"What was I supposed to say? I come in peace take me to your leader? It was about to blow itself up." John replied with a tiny hint of humor that occasionally broke the surface of his otherwise quiet demeanor.

Other than Cortana, only with other Spartans, Sergeant Johnson, Captain Keyes and his daughter Miranda, Lord Hood and a very select few Marines and Navy personnel were privy to the lighter side of John.

"Well you could have chosen not to have your gun pointed at them, and remember when you meet their superiors you can show respect but they are not your superiors, so you don't have to bark your rank." Cortana chided.

"Sorry its habit. Ill try not to be too, submissive , when I meet this Atvar." John replied as he rounded a corner.

He was in the middle of the group of Lizards who had agreed to take him to their command ship, or Bannarship as they called it, to explain to their superiors why he was here and what he was.

As he looked down on them he realized just how short they were, especially to him.

Most humans came to at least his lower chest, but these Lizards were only at his stomach or his waist. How much taller he was almost comical, though the fact that all these little Lizards had guns, even if they would be almost useless against just the MJOLNIR's armor, made him take them seriously.

He knew that they were keeping an "eye turret" on him at all times, he was to them a gigantic walking tank that was armed to the teeth and of course an alien.

"The thing that has me worried is that they seem to be as stubborn as a mule when it comes to their viewpoint on the galaxy. It will be terrible difficult I'm afraid when we tell them exactly what we are and more about the UNSC. Even just the basic knowledge will make them addled. We saw how they reacted to us telling them of Slipspace." Cortana sighed.

"Im afraid your going to have to be a diplomat to the Race until we get rescued. Which thank god shouldnt be too long, we are not that far from what was once the boundary of explored space before the war, and with the UNSC victorious and the Inner Colonies, Earth Reach and Midguard still intact as well as most of the important strategic worlds and centers intact and not to mention the population was mostly saved, and the population boom that happened around 2543 and will no doubt happen again with the soldiers coming home the total human population should be at around 100 billion; which means the UNSC is probably recovering fast. We could fight the Covenant by the time of the Battle of Reach on even terms, in some cases in our favor, so the military should be in good shape which means that we get rescued faster." Cortana concluded.

John merely nodded as Cortana sighed.

"Its a good thing that the data dump took the stress off of my systems and that Guilty Spark's hasty repairs to get the activation index out of me added 9 years to my lifespan. I've been in hibernation for the most part of our voyage here so In retrospect I'm good as new."

"It is, I dont know who else would help me know what to say to these aliens." John said with a small smile.

"I know, funny that the most talkative guy in the universe who has probably killed more xenos than any other is the unofficial diplomat to another race. With your skills I cant see how this could possibly go to hell." the AI teased.

"Your quite the comedian." the Spartan replied.

"That reminds me are we sure that their shuttle can even fit us?" Cortana asked.

That was a good point. He remembered observing them as they docked. Even if there was room he might not fit.

He turned to the nearest Lizard, this one being the only one he could tell apart from the rest, due to it lacking a weapon. Ttomalss was his name he recalled.

"Excuse me senior researcher, but can your shuttle fit me?" he asked as his translation matrix sent out the noises that sounded like a boiling pot of water that was their language.

The Lizards all looked at each other for several seconds before hissing, obviously a sign of frustration. He also noticed that their tailstumps quivered as well.

"Curses we didn't think about having to bring a alien back with us!" the Lizard researcher exclaimed.

"Apologies for this inconvenience." one of the Lizards that seemed to be leading the group said. John couldn't tell which one it was..

"That's small group leader Woopah." Cortana answered the queation before he asked.

"Thanks." he replied with a grin as he turned to Woopah.

"Its not a problem Woopah. As you saw in the hangar bays I have plenty of ships at my disposal. Perhaps I can, with members of your team present, take one of the ships we call a dropship and dock with your flagship..er bannarship?"

The group thought it over before Woopah turned to him, "That seems agreeable, are you sure that this dropship is safe for several members of my team to travel with?"

"You have every right to be cautious. But I can assure you that my dropship is very safe. The dropships left on this ship have been through a very large battle and have survived heavy combat against what is, or was a mortal enemy of my species."

One of the members turned to John and spoke, "Exuse me Jaaaan," it gave his name a slight hiss, "But I must ask, you keep referring to this battle that you came from, and the signs of damage this ship has taken plus those on the vehicles on this ship do point to it, as well as the damage to your , ah what do you call it that you are wearing?" It asked as it pointed a clawed hand to his MJOLNIR Armor.

"Its called a Powered Battlesuit. Think of it as you space suit but with armor and mechanics that make you stronger and amplify the wearers movement." John answered.

"Thanks, who exactly were your species fighting?"

John again needed Cortana to help him with the name of the Lizard.

"Its Risten." she informed him with a giggle.

The Spartan stopped walking as he faced the entire group.

"My species under its government the UNSC and the UEG were fighting a 27 year long war against a religious alliance of seven advanced spacefaring species called the Covenant. The war spanned almost the entire length of this spiral arm of the galaxy and had battles on hundreds of worlds. The Covenant were on a war of extermination against my species that was fueled by their religion. The UNSC spent nearly 17 of those years, 34 of yours, loosing. Entire worlds were left uninhabitable or ruined and many worlds had to be abandoned just to buy time. The UNSC all but evacuated nearly all of the colony worlds that were farthest away from our homeworld , which we called the outer colonies, and the heavily populated colony worlds that were closest to our home system called the Inner colonies to buy time and allow the use of partisan and hit and run tactics on a interstellar scale to slow the Covenant down."

John didn't know how to read the emotions on the Lizards faces, mainly because due to their nearly immobile facial features they possessed, but the way their turret eyes were locked onto him he knew he had their complete attention.

He paused as the memories of the war flooded his mind.

He promptly shook his head of those thoughts before they overtook him. He had to stay focused.

Cortana noticed the spike in his brain.

"John are you okay?"

He grunted , "Yes, thank you."

He continued.

" The UNSC on many aspects were technologically behind the Covenant. We mostly made up for this with better tactics and fighting techniques, especially in ground battles where the technological differences were mitigated. We adapted to fighting them and eventually, with help through technology we captured from the Covenant, reverse engineered their technology and in some cases improved upon them to where by the twentieth year of the war we could fight them on even terms. We held off nearly all of their attacks on our Inner Colony worlds. The Covenant launched a large attack on a planet called Reach which was the most populous world outside of our home planet, Earth, but also acted as the headquarters for the UNSC and our military and was essentially what we call a fortress world. We won the battle, though we suffered a moderate amount of damage. After the battle we launched a counter offensive against the Covenant , ending in the total devastation of four worlds and the slaying of billions of the enemy civilians for the deaths we had incurred in revenge. By that point of the war we had lost nearly 1/6th of our population, around 21 billion souls."

That got a reaction from the Lizards, who hissed in wonder and horror.

He continued.

" By that point the Covenant had learned of the location of our homeworld, which had been kept a secret, and launched an all out attack. The battle for our world lasted months on end, though the considerable defenses of the homeworld and the home system proved to be too much for the Covenant to overcome. By that point in the war several species of the Covenant, one species in particular called the Sangheilli who were more or less the main military power of the Covenant, had been questioning why they were at war with us, as they saw us as worthy opponents. The Covenant operated by conquering species and making them a part of the Covenant, or they would offer them to become part of their ranks. The Covenant leaders, called the Prophets, never gave Humanity that offer, and instead of conquering us they were trying to exterminate us. The Sangheilli saw that we were as advanced as they were by that point and began to respect us. They began to openly question the Prophets as to why they were at war with us, especially after their failed attempts to destroy us and our counter attack, which left many to fear that the Covenant may be destroyed in the process of destroying us . This lead to an all out civil war within the Covenant which broke into two, the Loyalists and the Separatists. It was revealed that the religion that the Covenant believed in and what the Prophets claimed would bring them salvation was in fact a lie. This lead the Sangheilli to ally with us as we drove off another attack on our homeworld. The UNSC and the Seperatists banded together and defeated the Covenant Loyalists and killed the Prophets in a climactic battle which was the same battle that I came from, effectively ending the war but I am sure that there are still skirmishes taking place even right now with hold outs and rebels."

There was silence for almost a minute before one of the Lizards finally spoke.

"How big is this UNSC of yours?"

"Before the war the UNSC controlled 800 or so worlds which we colonized or terraformed into worlds suited to support us, and had a population of around 125 billion people. As of now I can only guess, but the UNSC probably has around half of that many worlds left, as 400 of them were either destroyed or abandoned, and around 100 billion people."

One of them spoke, it seemed to be the one named Ullhass, but he couldn't be sure.

"How many years have your species been traveling the stars? To accomplish interstellar travel and control so many worlds you must be ancient."

"I think we are about to give them a shock. From what I can tell they progress extremely slowly." Cortana chimed.

John prepared himself for the inevitable backlash.

"My species has advanced very fast after we finally became industrialized. We have been traveling the stars for nearly 500 years, and we had intersystem travel like yours for about a hundred years before that."

Here it came.

"You lie! There is no way that a species can advance that quickly." Ttomalss almost immediately retorted.

John sighed.

This was going to be a long day.

"No I do not. Senior researcher if I was lying you would not be having this conversation right now on this ship. The reason my species advanced so quickly lies mainly with the fact that for most of our history, even when we were just beginning to travel the stars, our homeworld was split into dozens of competing factions and ethnicities which were always in competition against each other for military, economic and social dominance over the other. This made it to where we constantly researched technologies and improved on them and created new ones so one faction would have an advantage over the other, which in turned caused the other factions to react and do the same. This lead to a constant technological progression where if one group did not advance they were either cast aside or were destroyed."

Before any of them could argue anymore Woopah broke in, "We can continue this elsewhere , for now lets simply get to Atvar's ship. Risten, Ullhass and Ttomalss will go with the human aboard his ship."

Risten gripped the seat as he sat behind the human in the strange cockpit of the "Pelican" dropship he called it as it accelerated away from the wrecked ship towards the awaiting Emperor Hetto.

The seat nearly swallowed him with its larger size, and it was uncomfortable as it did not have a place for his tailstump to go, but he paid no head as he was awed at the ship he was in.

Apparently it was meant to act as both a troop transport and a shuttlecraft, but what astounded him was it was able to work in space and the atmosphere with little problem. From the large troop bay in the back where Ullhass and Ttomalss were sitting, no thanks to the artificial gravity that was present, to the large cannon on the nose and the missiles it had in the wings, this craft could probably take out an armored column of Landcruisers while transporting no doubt large and terrifyingly armed humans to battle.

He still was trying to wrap his mind about the war that was described to them.

He also noted that they were actually yet to have actually seen the human yet, as it did not remove the helmet of its armor.

It had told them that he was not going to remove it until he was sure about the situation being peaceful.

It was a sound observation, as they had greeted him with an explosive metal bomb.

The human soldier, Jaaahn , had however showed them an image of a male and a female of his species.

He could not get over how alien they looked, with eyes not in turrets that seemed immobile and with fur on the top of their heads. Also instead of proper tough scales they had soft skin that apparently varied in color from one human group to another.

They looked truly alien! Even the Rabotev looked somewhat similar to the Race, but these humans looked so different!

As the dropship accelerated to the bannarship Risten almost dropped his mouth in laughter as the flight of killercraft escorting it to the ever looming bannarship had trouble keeping up with the dropship.

At that Ullhass crept into the cockpit, his eye turrets taking in everything with as much hatchling fervor as Risten before leaning to him and whispering.

"This discovery will change the Race you know. But will we embrace it or as we always have done will we be so cautious as to where we ignore it?"

He had no answer.

At one of the docking bays, this one being in one of the rotating sections, Atvar was thinking the same thing as he, Straha, Kirel and the other closest Shiplords as well as dozens of infantry males and researchers waited for the alien's ship to dock.

The male in charge of the docking system announced to the assembled males that the alien's ship was docking.

"_What did this mean for the Race?"_

_**Meanwhile…..**_

_**Ceti Chi System**_

_**UNSC Warlock Class Cruiser **_

_**UNSC Sword of Damocles **_

"Covenant destroyer is exiting the slingshot orbit of the primary satellite. Range 500,000 kilometers and closing! Its charging its plasma projectors and readying multiple plasma torpedoes!" the A.I. of the _Sword of Damocles_, a 4th generation "Smart" AI with the avatar of a Roman Legionnaire aptly named Maximus informed the captain of the ship with worry as crews and officers frantically worked at their stations.

Captain Ludmilla Jager grabbed her captains seat as yet more blasts of plasma slammed into the side of the heavy cruiser, the shields taking the brunt of the damage.

"CbIH N Cyka!" the 37 year old blond of direct Eastern European descent cursed in Russian.

Maximus turned on is holographic pedestal that was surrounded by the glass and holo-screens of the surrounding bridge officers.

"Also one of the Frigates appears to still be operational."

It had all started 26 hours prior when one of the deep space monitoring stations that was part of a net of 200 such stations that was to be essentially a wall of sensors to warn the recovering UNSC of Covenant Loyalist incursions, detected several slipspace "eddies" that were the profile of ships.

It was immediately apparent that they were Loyalist ships due to their vectors and the fact that the Sangheilli vessels that would occasionally come to human space would use a different vector but would be far more cautious.

As a response the fleet base at Midguard had immediately sent out a force to the abandoned colony system near the edge of pre-war UNSC space, almost as far out as Harvest, the Ceti Chi system.

After Harvest fell during the opening years of the war the systems 20 light years around Harvest almost immediately fell under attack, half of which fell before the White Doctrine or even the Cole Protocol were enacted. As a result the small mining colony of half a million was burned without almost any resistance by 6,000 Covenant soldiers and an as of then yet to be seen CCS Battlecruiser in 2529.

The world was near the end of the list of planets that were to be reclaimed, if at all.

The surface of the world, though scarred, was still hospitable.

And because of that the Covenant had decided to look for something on it.

The UNSC's response was considered to be more than likely overkill, but these days that was not frowned upon.

They sent her ship, the _Sword of Damocles_, one of the newer and more powerful Warlock class Cruisers.

By 2535 it had become apparent that although the Marathon class cruisers that preceded it were no doubt very powerful and good, they just were not powerful enough, and though the UNSC could build them at the various shipyards at Reach, Earth, Mars and about a dozen other Inner colony shipyards at a pace of about 80 a year, they needed a ship that was more powerful and could easily be adapted to take on the new technologies the UNSC was developing.

As such the Warlock was born.

It took until 2544 for the first couple dozen to roll off of the slipways, but by then the UNSC had produced the most powerful vessels ever outside of the newer Concordia heavy Carriers and the four dozen or so Battleships.

With a length of 1700 meters it was as large as Covenant CCS Battlecruisers.

(Yes I am using the Warlock from Babylon 5. Terrible show but interesting ship designs. Look it up if you want to see how a WarlockS looks like)

They were armed to the teeth with the UNSC's most powerful weapons. 2 Heavy MAC Guns, which fired a thousand ton slug at 130,000 kilometers a second, One Frigate sized 600 ton slug firing MAC mounted on the underside , an array of six 20 inch Non-Linear Gallienion Cannons, or Particle Cannons as they were called which were in three dual barreled turrets, two turrets on the top of the ship and one on its underbelly.

After that there were around 30 trusty anti-ship pulse lasers, 100 archer missile tubes with 30 reloads apiece, nearly a hundred strategically placed anti-missile pulse lasers and around 120 50mm CIWS. All of these weapons were complemented by no less than 80 Falken starfighters and 20 Longsword bombers along with 40 Pelicans.

All of which were firing as fast as they could to stop the onslaught of Covenant.

When the _Sword of Damocles_ arrived in system it found not one or two ships it found no less than two CCS Battlecruisers, a CPV Class destroyer, and four frigates.

If the second CCS hadn't have gone to ground and the fleet being mostly split up around the system her ship would have been eviscerated immediately.

With luck on their side the _Sword of Damocles_ immediately turned her slipspace jammers to full power to allow the cruiser to have the luxury of engaging each ship nearly one at a time.

The first two frigates whom were in orbit around Cheti Chi 4 quickly fell two the superior firepower of the cruiser, each one gutted by a heavy MAC slug. The third fell to the Longswords as they put three HAVOK Class 30 megaton nuclear missiles into it, vaporizing it.

By then the CCS Cruiser and the last Frigate had come into range and attacked, alongside around 140 Seraphs, which the Falkens dealt with, though they suffered around 25 casualties.

That had been a nail biter.

The battle had lasted for maybe six minutes and had begun at around half a million kilometers until by the time it was over the two sides were only a few miles apart.

By then the Frigate had been ripped open and burned by the six Particle Cannons and the CCS was half of what it used to be, literally. Its wreckage was going to slam into one of the primary satellites of the colony in several hours as it tumbled through space.

Four MAC rounds and all six particle cannons hitting it at a rate of three times a minute would do that.

However the Covenant had drawn blood too.

The once proud ship was now at less than 60 percent combat effectiveness as the shields were brought down and were slowly recharging, the were now only at 6 percent, might as well not been there.

The armor on the port side was down to 20 percent in some places as a plasma beam and a plasma torpedo slammed into the ship after the shields were dropped by the CCS Battlecruiser's energy projector, and several decks were open to space.

However worse still one of the MACs were damaged, cutting the ships firepower by a full 20 percent.

Ludmilla nearly snarled as she turned to the weapons officer, Lt. Fisher.

"Give it a full broadside of our heavy pulse lasers. Finish it off."

"Yes man." he replied curtly.

Ten quick pulses of blue light sliced into the wreck of the Frigate, one hitting the stricken ship's reactor and turning it into pieces of oversized shrapnel.

"Enemy ship preparing to fire ma'am." Maximus noted with a monotone voice.

Feeling her heart rush she immediately turned to Lt. Fisher, "What is the status of our primary weapons?"

The ship vibrated under their feet and seats as the helmsmen pushed the two oversized engines and four boosters into the redline in an attempt to throw off the Covenant ship's aim, as much good as it would do.

The Lieutenant's pale skin on his face was slick with sweat as he answered, "Ma'am the MAC's are at 60 percent charge and climbing, their built in energy capture systems were used up after our third salve against that Battlecruiser, and we pushed them past the limit when we fired four shots per gun on a single charge, they are taking a lot longer to reach maximum output. Our Shiva's will take too long to reach the target and we were not carrying our full load of ten when we launched. The Particle Cannons are online, however it will take two or three salvos to bring down those shields, and by then…" he trailed off.

It only took Ludmilla two seconds to think of a way out.

"Maximus launch two of our Shiva's, use a dry launch and let momentum carry them." She then turned to Fisher, "Shunt all power to the Particle Cannons, keep firing them as fast as you can charge them, I don't care if they overheat." She then addressed the helmsmen.

"Put us behind those nukes and at least 30,000 km away."

"Aye Captain." they all answered as she turned to Maximus, who just launched the two Shivas in what the UNSC called a "dry launch", where the missile one fired out of the tube by small magnetic rails would fire its booster for three seconds before cutting them off and drifting to the target.

"Once those Plasma Torpedoes get near those nukes, which will be maybe two seconds, detonate them, they will destabilize their magnetic fields and eliminate them. And tell everyone to hold on."

The AI smiled, "Pulling a trick from Admiral Cole's playbook huh? Yes ma'am I will do that, but that will not stop those plasma beams."

"We have to do our best then." She retorted calmly as Lt. Fisher informed that they had a clear lock for the Particle Cannons.

"Fire" she ordered with venom in her voice.

Immediately the ship rumbled.

The Particle cannons shot six red beams of ionized particles at 8/10th the speed of light. The six beams slammed into the shield's of the offending vessel, each with nearly a hundred megatons of blistering power, dropping them nearly by half.

the radar operator shouted, "They're firing!"

The lateral lines on the bulbous whale like 1200 meter ship flashed electric blue with plasma before it all focused into a ball and discharged, releasing a flaming blue projectile 30 meters across that was traveling at 80,000 km a second.

Ludmilla watched on the viewscreens as the torpedo neared the Shiva's and blazed across the distance.

"Now!"

Two new suns flashed into existence, each one over 80 megatons in power.

The plasma torpedo had just passed over them when they detonated, as such the intense radiation and energy destabilized the magnetic field that held the plasma together, propelled and guided the destructive bolt of hellfire.

With the containment gone the plasma simple dispersed harmlessly.

The _Damocles_ rocked as the explosions were only a scant 30,000 km away, the weakened starboard shields blazed gold as the heat and radiation slammed into them.

"Ma'am I have re-established a lock and the PC's are recharged, commencing firing." Lt. Fisher bellowed as he grabbed for a handrail to keep from being knocked over, his crash webbing straining to keep him in his seat.

The Particle Cannons, (PC's for short) fired again, this time in a full broadside as the two ships now were passing each other only at 100,000 km, close range in space combat.

The six beams hit the Loyalist Destroyer and it's shields finally gave way in a burst of electricity.

However at the same time the Brutes in command of the destroyer fired back with two plasma beams from it's projector's.

Traveling at half the speed of light the _Sword of Damocles_ had no time to evade as one then two beams hit its starboard flank.

The Shields, only having recharged to 25 percent almost immediately gave way after only having bled off 70 percent of the first beam, the rest cutting into the hull.

The Second beam hit exactly in the middle of the mighty UNSC cruiser, the Titanium A / Ferrite Composite armor holding back most of the beam before succumbing, the rest gouging deep into the ship and killing or maiming a hundred crewmen and burning three decks.

"Fuck!" Ludmilla cursed as she pulled herself back into her chair.

"Damage report!"

"We lost around a hundred crew men and have dozens more injured. The beam missed the critical sections though, so we are still in this." Maximus replied as his lines of code flashed.

"Fire every missile we have, and stagger fire the PC's." Ludmilla ordered.

Over 1100 Archer missiles, each with a fusion based warhead with the power of a MOAB bomb from the 21st century, shot out of their tubes and raced towards the Covenant vessel, which had begun to turn with the _Damocles_, starting nothing more than a shootout which would leave both ships destroyed as they both tried to get a shot at one another's engines.

To complement them the PC's began to fire one beam after another, cycling as fast as they could while they blew off the Detsroyer's armor and returned the favor.

The Destroyer desperately fired all of its anti-missile cannons and lasers, which as usual took down missiles in droves, but by the time they hit there were still 700 of them.

Just as explosions were wrecking the ship the Covenant vessel fired again, this time taking out the lower and smaller Frigate sized MAC gun and slicing three decks open.

By then however the Destroyer was a drifting wreck, the Damocles firing its Archers as fast as it could launch them, in the end putting over 3000 missiles on target and leaving the ship a twisted hulk as secondary explosions wracked the ship.

The crew cheered as Ludmilla sank into her seat.

Her ship was now down to 30 percent combat efficiency, and there was still a CCS Battlecruiser down there.

They would be lucky to last ten seconds against it in their current state.

The Marines that they had launched groundside were engaging the Covenant and were pushing them back,closing in on what looked like an excavation site, just what artifact they had found now needed to be found, and taken from the Loyalist if necessary. Though ground assaults against grounded ships were possible and had been done before, they were always bloody.

Maximus immediately cut into her thoughts, "Ma'am the Battlecruiser planeside is jumping!"

"What !" She exclaimed as she jumped from her seat.

The scans from the sensors jumped as they registered the burst of energy from the slipspace rupture.

"Why would they do that? it's a good thing that out Marines were not near the ship." Ludmilla though out load.

The raio officer gasped as he ripped off his headset, "Ma'am we are receiving a distress signal, that's…that's…"

"What is it?" She asked.

The officer shook her head as she simply switched on the bridge speakers.

What she heard next made her heart stop.

"_Mayday Mayday Mayday. This is Sierra 117. Adrift aboard aft section of UNSC Frigate Foreword Unto Dawn…" _

_**Your Reviews are greatly appreciated! I need to know what you think about the story so I can write it better if it needs be. Thanks**  
_


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